Hi, I'm Pillibug (or Pilli or PB), and this is my new side blog for cool and cute bug stuff, as well as something of a personal journal of my own invertebrate pets and breeding projects as I learn more about these wonderful little creatures!
I'll be editing this pinned post as needed. Below you can find the common tags I plan on using to help organize my blog.
Doing my daily checks on my bins includes checking my P. Pruinosus powder blue bin for the occasional powder orange that crops up to maintain a dedicated population of the recessive trait.
This morning I spotted a baby that was friggin white!? I'm used to the blue babies looking a little orange at the start before their carapace thickens enough to show blue, and it usually shows pretty clearly under the 40x magnification.
Not this little one though. It's internal organs are still clearly orange but it's carapace is completely white. So here's my theories atm:
Occam's razor. This is a very high expression oreo crumble. Little one got the gene for the big white patches and went hog wild with it (the big giveaway here being the eyes still have pigmentation).
Much less likely, somehow something of the albinism gene that was present in my original 25 founders got passed down quietly until manifesting as a form of leucistic coloration in this little one. I'm not well versed in how the alleles for albinism work in these guys which is why this is a theory at all.
The least likely, nearly impossible, but non-zero chance that this individual is leucistic completely de novo.
Right now it's in the less populated powder orange bin so I can more easily keep an eye on it and also monitor for the non-zero chance it's a randomly very pale powder blue that will darken with age to eventually be noticable. (If so it'll go back in the blue bin hopefully before it breeds, but worst case I'll know any pale babies need to go in the blue bin too when I see them.)
Will update in a few weeks to see if I can figure out what's going on with the little novelty.
i am losing my mind over discovering that there's a species of jumping spider (Pellenes nigrociliatus) that builds nests in empty snail shells and makes little silk webbing curtains to close off the entrance
Someone in my powder orange bin carries the gene for white patches!!!
Was going through my powder orange P. pruinosus bin because their population recently exploded thanks to the new individuals I added from a recent expo and I wanted to snag some females to outcross in my powder blue bin to ease their genetic load, and while examining some juveniles under the microscope I found two orange creams! And both were female!!!!
So at least 2 someones in there from my original population (I have no reason to believe the new ones I got would carry the spotting gene) are still kicking around with their secret spots!
2 out of the 50-ish mancae isn't great odds but I know there's at least one more gravid female due in <2 weeks, and there's another younger clutch I saw hiding in the leaf litter last time I got them to swarm (but were still brand new tiny beans with no clearly visible color and way too tiny to grab safely for microscope viewing) so we'll see what pops out!
My very last orange cream P. pruinosus female from my original founder population is gravid!!!!
Y'all don't understand how excited I am omg omg omg
nerding out over breeding projects and some super basic color genetics discussion under the cut, feel free to ignore
So I started my isopod keeping journey just last year in mid/late May with a "party mix" of P. pruinosus. At the time I wasn't too interested in genetics, but (to keep a long story short) that rapidly changed, and by the time I really got interested, a lot of my recessive phenotypes were starting to be bred out.
Quick genetics aside for folks who may not be familiar (feel free to skip ahead if you already know this stuff), the colors and patterns I'm working with in regards to my P. pruinosus are really simple [Mendelian inheritance].
Take the two major colors as an example, and let's make B the dominant wild-type blue allele and b as the recessive orange allele. Like us, isopods are diploids, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes. Meaning two copies of an allele per gene, half from mom, half from dad. An isopod with BB is going to be a powder blue, and an isopod with bb is going to be a powder orange. These are considered homozygous. They have two copies of the same allele for that gene. BUT! An isopod that has Bb is heterozygous. They have two different alleles. And because B is dominant over b, they will still appear blue.
However
this heterozygous individual still has the possibility of passing on that recessive b allele.
Check out below for a quick little set of [punnett squares] I drummed up for this in Excel. You can see just how easy it is to lose a certain phenotype (or "morph." This is the actual trait we can observe.)
There's something similar going on with the spotting associated with "oreo crumble" and "orange cream" morphs of this species. I denote them as S for solid and s for spotted. (color added for visual help on this post).
So what in the everliving hell am I freaking out about?
Basically, prior to my most recent bug order, I've been trying my damndest to recover by bb ss population from what I had left in my general populations.
At first, I scrounged together everyone I could find with any sort of recessive traits and paired them up to maximize the chances that they would mate with exactly who I wanted to and give me the highest chance to get the genotypes I was looking for.
Unfortunately, the pair bins I had going had some sort of lethal flaw. Between desiccation despite constant misting and repeated failed moults, I kept losing individuals to the point I was down to just 10 mixed sex oreo crumbles (B?ss) and 3 male orange creams (bb ss).
So I revamped my setup. Instead of pair bins, I set up a full bin to allow my spotted isopods I still had to cohabit and made peace that I may end up breeding out the orange creams with plans to outcross with powder oranges in the future to try and bring them back.
But then, oh but then, on March 7th as I was doing some casual spot-cleaning in Ezra's bioactive tank I found a perfectly breeding sized orange cream female! Y'all I freaked.
And now she's pregnant????????????? PREGONATE!? GREGNANT???PREGANANANT!!!!!
And I mean early stages. Like brand fucking new. Like I needed my microscope to confirm. Buns have only just gone in the oven. Meaning she definitely got pregnant in this bin. And that means all of her offspring are guaranteed to be spotted, and at least heterozygous for orange coloration depending on the male she mated with.
Do I now have other bins that I'm outcrossing with my newest batch? Sure. And I don't regret that even a tiny bit because the influx of new genes will strengthen my population overall. But ougadskjgjkadgfgkghf it feels so good that something is actually coming out of this nearly abandoned project. I'll have another generation of gorgeous babies to further outcross with the offspring of the other bins!
Anyway, if anyone is curious about my current breeding project bins, I have them marked A-D.
A is all of my ?? ss isopods from all of my various vivariums and general population bins.
B is all male bb ss and female B? ss (likely BB ss) from my most recent order.
C is all male B? ss (likely BB ss) and female bb ss from my most recent order.
D is currently empty but currently planned to be exclusively bb ss from all of the other bins.
I know B and C are almost certainly going to result in heterozygous oreo crumbles, but imo it'll be worth it to have the increased genetic variation in other parts of their genome since I know they're from different populations. I can wait an extra generation to see more orange creams to increase the overall population health.
By the time the orange cream morph starts to be bred out of B and C, D should have a robust enough population to perpetuate itself where I shouldn't have to worry about it. And just in case it's the oreo crumbles who start to disappear (which is a non-zero chance when you're starting from a small population), bin A will be repurposed to be my dedicated oreo crumble bin.
Here's mama and her babies! I don't plan on handling her directly again after this so I don't stress her into resorbing her eggies. My P. pruinosus have been largely tolerant of my handling when gravid, but her brood is too precious for me to risk it.
Someone in my powder orange bin carries the gene for white patches!!!
Was going through my powder orange P. pruinosus bin because their population recently exploded thanks to the new individuals I added from a recent expo and I wanted to snag some females to outcross in my powder blue bin to ease their genetic load, and while examining some juveniles under the microscope I found two orange creams! And both were female!!!!
So at least 2 someones in there from my original population (I have no reason to believe the new ones I got would carry the spotting gene) are still kicking around with their secret spots!
2 out of the 50-ish mancae isn't great odds but I know there's at least one more gravid female due in <2 weeks, and there's another younger clutch I saw hiding in the leaf litter last time I got them to swarm (but were still brand new tiny beans with no clearly visible color and way too tiny to grab safely for microscope viewing) so we'll see what pops out!
Which insect can grow larger than a mouse and has mandibles strong enough to snap a pencil in half? That would be the titan beetle (Titanus giganteus)! Growing up to 6.5 in (16.5 cm) long, this enormous insect can be found in tropical rainforests in parts of South America. Experts think this critter is about as big as a beetle can get. Why? In insects, the oxygen to keep cells alive isn’t forcefully delivered by lungs and heart. Instead, it seeps through the body largely by diffusion. That passive method means not enough oxygen could get to the inside of a truly gigantic beetle.
Like two years ago I ran into a salamander biologist in the woods who complimented my ability to 'walk quietly in the forest while causing minimal disturbance to the leaf litter.' Still goes to my head.
My very last orange cream P. pruinosus female from my original founder population is gravid!!!!
Y'all don't understand how excited I am omg omg omg
nerding out over breeding projects and some super basic color genetics discussion under the cut, feel free to ignore
So I started my isopod keeping journey just last year in mid/late May with a "party mix" of P. pruinosus. At the time I wasn't too interested in genetics, but (to keep a long story short) that rapidly changed, and by the time I really got interested, a lot of my recessive phenotypes were starting to be bred out.
Quick genetics aside for folks who may not be familiar (feel free to skip ahead if you already know this stuff), the colors and patterns I'm working with in regards to my P. pruinosus are really simple [Mendelian inheritance].
Take the two major colors as an example, and let's make B the dominant wild-type blue allele and b as the recessive orange allele. Like us, isopods are diploids, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes. Meaning two copies of an allele per gene, half from mom, half from dad. An isopod with BB is going to be a powder blue, and an isopod with bb is going to be a powder orange. These are considered homozygous. They have two copies of the same allele for that gene. BUT! An isopod that has Bb is heterozygous. They have two different alleles. And because B is dominant over b, they will still appear blue.
However
this heterozygous individual still has the possibility of passing on that recessive b allele.
Check out below for a quick little set of [punnett squares] I drummed up for this in Excel. You can see just how easy it is to lose a certain phenotype (or "morph." This is the actual trait we can observe.)
There's something similar going on with the spotting associated with "oreo crumble" and "orange cream" morphs of this species. I denote them as S for solid and s for spotted. (color added for visual help on this post).
So what in the everliving hell am I freaking out about?
Basically, prior to my most recent bug order, I've been trying my damndest to recover by bb ss population from what I had left in my general populations.
At first, I scrounged together everyone I could find with any sort of recessive traits and paired them up to maximize the chances that they would mate with exactly who I wanted to and give me the highest chance to get the genotypes I was looking for.
Unfortunately, the pair bins I had going had some sort of lethal flaw. Between desiccation despite constant misting and repeated failed moults, I kept losing individuals to the point I was down to just 10 mixed sex oreo crumbles (B?ss) and 3 male orange creams (bb ss).
So I revamped my setup. Instead of pair bins, I set up a full bin to allow my spotted isopods I still had to cohabit and made peace that I may end up breeding out the orange creams with plans to outcross with powder oranges in the future to try and bring them back.
But then, oh but then, on March 7th as I was doing some casual spot-cleaning in Ezra's bioactive tank I found a perfectly breeding sized orange cream female! Y'all I freaked.
And now she's pregnant????????????? PREGONATE!? GREGNANT???PREGANANANT!!!!!
And I mean early stages. Like brand fucking new. Like I needed my microscope to confirm. Buns have only just gone in the oven. Meaning she definitely got pregnant in this bin. And that means all of her offspring are guaranteed to be spotted, and at least heterozygous for orange coloration depending on the male she mated with.
Do I now have other bins that I'm outcrossing with my newest batch? Sure. And I don't regret that even a tiny bit because the influx of new genes will strengthen my population overall. But ougadskjgjkadgfgkghf it feels so good that something is actually coming out of this nearly abandoned project. I'll have another generation of gorgeous babies to further outcross with the offspring of the other bins!
Anyway, if anyone is curious about my current breeding project bins, I have them marked A-D.
A is all of my ?? ss isopods from all of my various vivariums and general population bins.
B is all male bb ss and female B? ss (likely BB ss) from my most recent order.
C is all male B? ss (likely BB ss) and female bb ss from my most recent order.
D is currently empty but currently planned to be exclusively bb ss from all of the other bins.
I know B and C are almost certainly going to result in heterozygous oreo crumbles, but imo it'll be worth it to have the increased genetic variation in other parts of their genome since I know they're from different populations. I can wait an extra generation to see more orange creams to increase the overall population health.
By the time the orange cream morph starts to be bred out of B and C, D should have a robust enough population to perpetuate itself where I shouldn't have to worry about it. And just in case it's the oreo crumbles who start to disappear (which is a non-zero chance when you're starting from a small population), bin A will be repurposed to be my dedicated oreo crumble bin.
Been sick as a dog with a double case of flu B and COVID (please wear your masks and quarantine), but at least little Ezra is here to comfort me. It's been entirely too long since I've had the comfort of a snake relaxing on my chest with me. I've missed it so much I could've cried.
#i think the rightmost one might be oniscus asellus?? its uropods look different to the others
Not quite, though I see why you would think so! The big dark grey is a mature male wild-type morph of P. scaber. I received a small population from an abandoned vivarium around October of last year. I lost all but two for a mysterious reason that [I may have just figured out].
The others all around him are juveniles (hence why he looks so much bigger) that I just received yesterday (March 10), and are that pretty pale-tan freckled "calico" morph.
I actually do already have a culture of Oniscus asellus that are larger, dark brown in color, whitish clear margins. Below are some images of my O. asellus (left and right adults are females, center individual is a male, and the smaller ones are G1 mancae) as well as a nice magnified picture of their uropods.
