2/1/2021: Death by isopod: Culture compendium 2
The last 48 hours have been a blur of packing orders, sorting isopods, and meticulously picking over projects. Regrettably, there’s more to be done than I imagined and things will be spilling over into this week. The silver lining is a boatload of new and refined projects, and lower bimonthly maintenance. My isopods are tended to ever two to four weeks depending on a number of factors and I attribute the ease of care directly to the quality and diligence I put into my setups. But time for the good stuff: Another blob of things to add to the seemingly never-ending list of things Kyle needs to add to the site:
Proven lines (breed true within their descriptions) in their final analysis phases and slated for release soon:
–Porcellio scaber “Pseudorange” (multi-gene orange phenotype from Spanish stock. Years of scrutinizing work finally paying off!)
–Armadillidium nasatum “Latte” (simple recessive golden brown color)
–Porcellio scaber “American Pied” (sex-linked red calico high-expression pieds)
–Armadillidum vulgare “RC Red” (Orange vigors bred for brick red adult color in both sexes)
–Isopoda sp. “Tarragona” “Orange” (sp. “Tarragona” bred for orange. The old line still threw wild types)
Ongoing projects at various stages of consistency and/or heritability testing:
–Armadillidium granulatum “Yellow” (bred for increased yellow on both sexes)
–Porcellio scaber light calicoes (US calico stock bred for lighter, grayer coloration on traditional sex-link calicoes)
–Porcellio dilatatus Mike Levins strain giants (bred for adult size from Mike Levin’s thousands-strong inbred colony)
–Porcellio scaber Red, blue, and yellow project (This has been my favorite multi-gene project so far and I’m excited to see how they’re received. These are true multi-gene yellows with bold, saturated color, unlike yellow snows or older white outs, without the gray or black freckling that obscures the color on most yellow calico lines. Instead the calico markings are red and blue-gray, along with the antennae tips. If males prove out in the next gen, they’ll be ready to go, though the males may end up being stuck as red calicoes. The color dimorphism could be really cool but ideally I’d like the same expression on both sexes in this line)
–Porcellio scaber phantom calicoes (another Spanish x US strain cross product with white-gray tinted red calicoes of both sexes)
–Armadillidium vulgare Multi-gene non-sex linked yellow (An Ann Arbor x St Lucia cross that produced some high expression yellows, with the real prize being a yellow male!)
–Armadillidium vulgare “Peacha Cana” (Yellow bodied orange striped linebred Punta Canas)
Proven lines and species ready for release:
–Armadillium granulatum
–Porcellio scaber “Skirt”
–Porcellio laevis “Fort Stockton Super 8”
–Armadillidium vulgare “Fort Stockton Super 8” (My second favorite wild locale with yellow spotted males and multi-gene reds!)
–Armadillidum vulgare “Marietta, Georgia”
–Armadillidium nasatum “White Out”
–Porcellio dilatatus “Caramel”
–Porcellionides floria “Well Wishes”
-cf. Porcellionides sp. “Miami”
-Armadillidium vulgare “Gem Mix”
–Armadillidium vulgare “Albino” (old stock from before somebody pulled T+/T- out of their bum)
–Armadillidium vulgare “Beloit, Wisconsin”
–Armadillidium vulgare “Tutti Frutti”
–Porcellio dilatatus “Mike Levins”
–Trichorhina sp. “Key Largo”
-Haplopthalmus danicus
–Armadillidium vulgare “Dakota 12”
–Agabiformis lente
–Isopoda sp. “Tarragona”
It may be a few days til the next inventorying as I hurriedly pack last week’s delayed orders, but I’ll get there.
-Kyle