Porcellio magnificus 'New Locale' Isopods

Every hobby has its giants, and Porcellio magnificus is one of the real ones: a big, arid-country Spanish woodlouse in warm orange with a pale skirt along its edges, standing among the largest isopods you can keep. Older males are the showpiece, stretching past 55 mm in total length once you count the long uropods, on a body of around 30 mm. What "New Locale" adds is provenance, not a different animal. It marks a distinct collection locality brought into captive breeding, so keepers get fresh bloodlines and a little more genetic diversity in what has been a fairly narrow captive population.

That last point is worth being honest about, because magnificus is not a species to take lightly. It has a naturally small range in the arid hills around Almeria in south-eastern Spain, and its wild populations have drawn real conservation concern, with recent research flagging unregulated collection as a pressure on Spain's woodlice. The responsible and now-standard source is captive-bred stock, which is what we supply. Choosing a captive-bred 'New Locale' line supports exactly the kind of managed hobby population that keeps demand off wild animals.

This is a step up in care, not a beginner's isopod. It sits at the top of the giant-Porcellio bracket alongside Porcellio expansus in its orange form and the massive hoffmannseggii Titan, and it once carried the name Porcellio hoffmannseggii magnificus before it was recognised as a species in its own right. Like every Porcellio it cannot conglobate; the broad, flat body simply will not fold, so it depends on size, speed and cover instead. If you are choosing between the two magnificus lines, the original stock lives on our Porcellio magnificus page.

The single most important thing to get right is moisture, and the instinct most keepers bring from tropical isopods is the wrong one here. Magnificus comes from dry country and wants a dry, airy setup with just one damp corner, not the humid box that suits a Cubaris. Aim for low overall humidity, somewhere around 50%, with strong ventilation and a single misted corner the animals can visit when they need it. They take warmth well too, comfortable from about 20 up to 28°C, which sets them apart from the cooler-running Spanish species.

Give them plenty of floor space in a well-ventilated tub, then a free-draining substrate: a base of flake soil, rotted hardwood and topsoil with extra drainage worked in, kept mostly dry with that one moist corner. Coco coir on its own holds too much water for a dry-habitat animal, so I would keep it out of the base. Lay cork bark and rock or slate across the surface for cover, and make calcium freely available, cuttlebone, crushed limestone or oyster shell, since a big isopod moulting a big shell needs plenty of it.

Feeding leans more carnivorous than the pill woodlice. Leaf litter and rotting wood are the base, but the giant Porcellio want regular protein, fish flake, dried shrimp or a proper isopod protein blend, two or three times a week, with soft veg such as squash, carrot and sweet potato alongside. Keep the protein coming, because an underfed colony of fast, powerful woodlice will turn on its own moulting members. Breeding is slower and more measured than the weedy species: a stable, correctly dry setup with good calcium and space will see females carry young and release live miniatures, building the colony gradually rather than in a rush.

A springtail culture helps manage the damp corner and any protein scraps, our guide to the different types of Porcellio covers where the giants sit, and the wider Porcellio collection shows the rest of the genus. Every order is captive-bred and packed with care in a double-walled box around a ventilated tub of damp sphagnum, posted Monday to Thursday by tracked next-day Royal Mail and covered by our live-arrival guarantee.