Porcellio sp. 'Red Uropods / Orange Stick' Isopods

Some isopods arrive with a full scientific name and a stack of published care notes. Porcellio sp. 'Red Uropods / Orange Stick' arrives with neither. It is an unnamed, still-undescribed Iberian Porcellio, known in the hobby only by two of its features: a pair of conspicuous red uropods, the paired tail projections at the rear of the body, and the orange, stick-like marking that runs along its back. Nobody has formally described it yet, so the trade name is all we have to go on, and it happens to describe the animal rather well.

The base colour sits somewhere between dark grey and brown, which is exactly the backdrop these two features need. The red-toned uropods stand out sharply at the tail, and the orange dorsal stripe draws the eye down the length of the body. Both traits are muted in juveniles and strengthen with each moult, so a colony you raise from small animals grows more striking as the months pass. Adults reach roughly 18 to 25 mm, mid-sized for the genus, and live for around two to three years.

The Iberian Peninsula is the global hotspot for Porcellio diversity, and this form sits comfortably beside the Spanish-line species we keep, including Porcellio hoffmannseggii 'Sevilla', hoffmannseggii Orange and Expansus Orange. Whether 'Red Uropods / Orange Stick' turns out to be a locality variant of a known species or something new remains open. The 'Sevilla' form was reclassified in 2024 as a variation of P. hoffmannseggii, so these questions do get answered eventually. For now it is a collector's Porcellio, and one for keepers who are past the beginner stage. You can see the rest of the group in our Porcellio collection.

Care follows the giant, dry Iberian Porcellio pattern. Give them a well-ventilated enclosure kept mostly dry, with just one damp corner rather than an evenly moist floor, so overall humidity stays low and the air keeps moving. I build the base free-draining, using flake soil, rotted hardwood and topsoil, and I avoid a plain coco-coir base, which holds too much water for this animal. A depth of around 5 to 7 cm is plenty, since this is a surface forager rather than a deep burrower. Lightly mist the one damp corner and let the rest dry out between waterings.

Top the substrate with a generous layer of leaf litter and bark, with magnolia leaf litter and pieces of rotten wood giving both food and cover. Room temperature suits them, and a little warmth at the top of the range brings breeding on, so anywhere from ordinary UK room warmth upward is fine without added heat in most homes. One thing worth knowing before they arrive: this Porcellio cannot conglobate. Its body is flat and it will not roll into a ball, relying instead on speed and cover, so expect quick animals that scatter when you lift a piece of bark.

Feed them well and keep calcium in front of them at all times, whether that is cuttlefish bone, crushed oyster shell or eggshell, since the whole genus needs it for moulting and breeding. They are also protein-hungry, more so than most isopods, and a colony left short on protein can turn aggressive and nip at softer tank mates. Keep a protein source available, fish flake or dried shrimp both work well, alongside leaf litter, rotting wood and the usual vegetables. Offer richer foods on the drier side to slow spoilage.

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 small overcount as standard.