Armadillidium vulgare 'Big Italy' (Giant Italian) Isopods

Nearly everyone has met this animal: the grey roly-poly under the plant pot that curls into a ball when you touch it. The Giant Italian is that exact species, Armadillidium vulgare, scaled up. 'Big Italy' is an Italian locality bred to express the larger body size some Italian populations run to naturally, so where a standard pill bug tops out around 10 to 18 mm, these regularly clear 20 mm. The familiar shape and behaviour are all present and correct; there is just more of it, and a 20-plus-millimetre roly-poly sealing into a ball has real presence.

A. vulgare is arguably the most successful land isopod on earth, at home on every continent bar Antarctica, in gardens, woodland and cities alike, which is exactly why it is so easy to keep. The Big Italy line carries all of that hardiness and drought tolerance and simply adds size, giving you an instantly recognisable animal with more heft to it. It sits naturally with the other Italian Armadillidium we keep, the acid-yellow Gestroi and its Milky Way morph, and the northern Lake Garda.

The care is standard pill-bug fare, which is to say undemanding. A six to ten litre tub with a clip-lock lid and cross-ventilation suits a starter group, though a little more floor space never hurts given the size they reach. Keep a moderate humidity with a gradient rather than a wet box: one lightly damp corner under sphagnum and leaf litter, the rest drier, with airflow over the top. Normal heated room temperature works the year round. Like every Armadillidium they conglobate, sealing into a tight defensive ball, and that classic trick is only more satisfying at this scale.

For substrate, build a living base of flake soil, well-rotted hardwood and organic topsoil, five centimetres or more deep so they can burrow. I would keep a straight coco-coir base out of it, since it holds moisture but gives a substrate-eater nothing to actually eat; the wood-and-leaf mix feeds them as it breaks down. Top it with a generous layer of magnolia and oak leaf litter and cork bark for cover, and leave a permanent calcium source such as cuttlebone or crushed eggshell in place, which matters all the more for animals moulting a larger shell.

Feeding is easy and cheap. Leaf litter and rotting wood are the always-available staple; add soft veg such as courgette, squash and sweet potato a couple of times a week, lift out what is not eaten within a day, and offer a little protein now and then to keep a breeding colony productive. As with all Armadillidium they will graze soft plants and moss in a planted vivarium, so choose robust greenery if you want it to survive alongside them.

Breeding is straightforward and rewarding, not least because the young are that bit bigger too. A settled group given warmth, calcium and steady food will carry young in the brood pouch and release live miniatures, building into a self-sustaining colony over a season. Pair them with a springtail culture to keep mould down, or browse the wider Armadillidium collection for more of the genus. Every order is captive-bred, boxed double-walled around a ventilated tub of damp sphagnum and posted Monday to Thursday by tracked next-day Royal Mail with a live-arrival guarantee and a 20% overcount as standard.