Porcellio bolivari 'Yellow Ghost' Isopods

From the dry limestone country of Alicante in south-eastern Spain comes one of the more unusual big isopods in the hobby. The Yellow Ghost is a pale morph of Porcellio bolivari, its body washed out to a soft, pallid lemon-yellow with a brighter band along the back, giving it a ghostly, almost translucent look. It is a large, broad-bodied Porcellio with real presence, and a quiet, refined one next to the bolder Spanish giants. Every colony we send is captive-bred here in the UK.

Introduction

This is the 'Yellow Ghost' colour form of Porcellio bolivari, a giant from the calcium-rich rock of Alicante, where no published record places it in a cave. It sits beside its sister morph, the brighter Bolivari 'Lemonade', and among the other large Spanish Porcellio: the close relative P. nicklesi (once treated as the same species) and the giant Titan. It is a collector's animal rather than a beginner's, distinctive for both its size and its pale, skeletal colour.

Appearance

A large Porcellio, broad and flat-bodied. The 3cm usually quoted, ours included, is a trade figure rather than a published one, because we cannot get a readable copy of Dollfus's 1892 description, and we cannot say whether the number counts the uropods. The pale lemon wash and the brighter dorsal stripe deepen as the animal matures, so young stock looks softer and less defined than a settled adult, and a group of pale-bodied giants makes a striking display. Being a Porcellio, it cannot conglobate: rather than rolling into a ball it relies on speed and on wedging into crevices.

Care

The key with the Yellow Ghost is that it comes from dry country, but "dry" here does not mean bone dry. It wants low humidity, roughly 45 to 55%, with strong cross-ventilation, and it suffers in a constantly damp, stagnant tub. Because an isopod breathes through gills that need some moisture, the trick is a mostly-dry setup with one reliable damp retreat: keep the bulk of the enclosure dry with rocky terrain, dry leaf litter and curved cork bark, and hold moisture in a single sphagnum corner the colony can visit. Give a well-draining substrate of organic topsoil and flake soil with sand for drainage, and mix limestone or shell grit through it, as an animal from limestone country has a real calcium demand. Our calcium guide covers the mineral side; strong airflow is the other half of the job.

Diet

An active scavenger: keep a constant base of hardwood leaf litter and decaying wood, add vegetable in small amounts, and offer protein once or twice a week, set on the dry side where it will not spoil. Keep a permanent calcium source going, and lift uneaten fresh food within a day. A modest springtail culture concentrated in the damp corner grazes what little soft mould a dry tub produces.

Breeding

The Yellow Ghost breeds at a moderate, steady pace rather than a Porcellio-style boom, building a colony reliably once it has settled into the right dry conditions. Females carry their young in a brood pouch and release them live, still short of their last pair of legs, and the pale colour comes in as they grow. Give it warmth, the dry-with-a-damp-corner balance, strong airflow and constant calcium, and let it establish undisturbed.

Who is this for?

The Yellow Ghost suits the experienced keeper who has kept dry-climate Porcellio before, and the collector building a bolivari set or a wider Spanish Porcellio shelf. It is not a first isopod, and it is a poor fit for anyone who tends to over-water or cannot give it real ventilation; if you are starting out, the hardy Scaber Mix is the place to learn Porcellio first.

All stock is captive-bred here in the UK and ships under our live arrival guarantee, in a ventilated deli tub with a damp sphagnum corner inside a double-walled box. We post Monday to Thursday by Royal Mail next day before 1pm, with a 20% overcount included. Setup components are in our accessories range.