Porcellio magnificus Isopods

If the giant Spanish Porcellio are the ceiling of the hobby, magnificus is the animal keepers build toward. It is one of the largest woodlice you can keep, a big arid-country species from the hills of Almeria in south-eastern Spain, coloured vivid warm orange with white antennae and a pale skirt running along its edges. Large old males are the showpiece, reaching over 55 mm in total length once you count the long uropods, on a body of around 32 mm. Put a mature colony on display and it holds its own against anything in the room.

It belongs at the top of the giant-Porcellio bracket alongside the flat, flared Porcellio expansus in its orange form and the massive hoffmannseggii Titan. It was once treated as a subspecies of hoffmannseggii before being recognised as a species in its own right, and like every Porcellio it cannot conglobate: the broad, flat body will not fold, so it relies on size, speed and cover instead. If you want the same species from a different collection locality, we also keep a distinct 'New Locale' bloodline.

A word on sourcing, because it matters with this one. Magnificus has a naturally small range in the arid country around Almeria, and its wild populations are of real conservation concern, flagged in recent work on the pressure that unregulated collection puts on Spain's woodlice. The responsible and now-standard source is captive-bred stock, which is what we supply. Choosing a captive-bred colony keeps demand off the wild animals and supports the managed hobby populations that make the species sustainable to keep at all.

This is an advanced isopod, not a beginner's, and almost all of the difficulty is moisture. Coming from dry country, magnificus wants a dry, well-ventilated setup with just one damp corner, the opposite of the humid box that suits a tropical Cubaris. Aim for low overall humidity, somewhere around 50%, with strong airflow and a single misted corner the colony can visit as needed. It takes warmth well, comfortable from about 20 up to 28°C, which sets it apart from the cooler-running Spanish species and makes a gentle heat source useful in a cold room.

Give them floor space in a well-ventilated tub and 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 far too much water for a dry-habitat animal, so leave it out of the base. Lay cork bark and rock or slate across the surface for cover, and make calcium freely available through cuttlebone, crushed limestone or oyster shell, since a large isopod moulting a large shell needs plenty of it.

Feeding leans more carnivorous than the pill woodlice. Leaf litter and rotting wood form the base, but the giant Porcellio want regular protein, fish flake, dried shrimp or a proper isopod protein, two or three times a week, alongside soft veg such as squash, carrot and sweet potato. 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, but a stable, correctly dry setup with good calcium and space will see females carry young and release live miniatures, building the colony gradually. Our guide to the different types of Porcellio sets out where it fits, and the wider Porcellio collection shows the rest. 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.