3/6/2022: Chasing dragons: the fate of Porcellio expansus “Orange”
As with any interest, the tumor-esque quest for more leaves many victims in its wake. The isopod hobby, much like the Big Bang, witnessed unparalleled growth in a short time period, and has been fighting a war of expansion and contraction due to market forces, changing interests, and the chicanery of stock mix-ups and flat-out nefarious deceptions and dupings. Many of the strains and species that triggered this explosion of interest are quickly being bastardized, confused, adulterated, and obfuscated. Among these, it may have been inevitable that the strains requiring the most care and patience, but which attracted the most amorous gazes, would suffer the most.
Porcellio expansus is a species of southern Spain with at least two populations separated by undesirable habitat. The rich speciation of isopods in southern Europe is a testament to life’s ability to shift into endless forms under varying pressures both intuitive and arbitrary, and this swift filling of niches will no doubt drive the emergence of intriguing entities in the region into humanity’s future.
Humans can also craft horrors beyond our comprehension, as subjective as that may be.
Porcellio expansus “Orange” is likely from the western population of this species, though hard information is difficult to find. Overall, this entity is larger (I would propose the word “huger” in this case), more colorful, and a touch more fickle than its eastern counterpart “White”.
For years it has been a struggle for some to produce “Orange” consistently, and after some initial success my F2s squeezed out 3 offspring and subsequently faded from existence. Confident with longer term success, I sought the strain out once more to prove my husbandry progress. I was not expecting to lose both my confidence and funds in the endeavor, not to failure, but to man made horrors within my comprehension.
The swelling of isopod madness has enabled extreme carelessness, and 3 of the lines I sourced of supposed “Orange” were nothing like the group I had received in 2017. They were erratically colored, rat-like in their prolificness (though many offspring did not make it beyond 1/2″), and worst of all the ultimate size reached was variable with many males maturing at tiny sizes much smaller than the more modestly sized pure “White” I have been maintaining under the same conditions for years! Genetic contamination was definitively to blame for these atrocities.
I am not opposed to crossing different localities and strains to create hobby lines for the purpose of linebreeding or perpetuating desirable traits. What I am vehemently opposed to is carelessness in line tracking or genuine deception when organisms are involved. Line tracking and proper identification protocol are so easy children can do it, and there is no excuse in the information age for not knowing what you’re working with. Though I see the bastardization of the “Magic Potion” line as a mar on isopod keepers at large, the reckless disregard for two strains of a species that practically carried the fledgling isopod hobby on their backs is a black eye indicative of a deeply rooted irreverence for the organisms being worked with.
After extensive frustration, I decided to take one more chance and work with Orin McMonigle’s line of “Orange”, and after seeing the stock in person I finally feel a surge of relief and hope as they appear to be pure. I will be communicating further with Orin to see if we can trace the line, but the consistency in presentation has assuaged a lot of my negativity and I’m thankful to have a chance with what is likely the real deal once more.
Isopod keepers: Do better. Treat your locality lines like the precious examples of life’s explosive adaptability in form, function, and color they are and not like collector’s trash.
-Kyle