# Is the giant orange Isopod a variety of P. Scaber ?



## dan d (Aug 9, 2008)

I'm trying to study up on my bugs, and I cannot find facts about the Giant orange Isopod.

Is the Giant orange Isopod the same as the Spanish orange isopod ? 

Are they a color morph of P. Scaber ? 

From what I can find it sounds like they are, but as you know searching the world wide web and unknown forums I could be reading replies / info from 6 year olds ! 

I found good solid info on P. Scaber, it looks like many a college student has done studies on them. I found it interesting the P. Scaber can tolerate temps to freezing, but I cannot find anything about the giant oranges or connect the two from a reliable source.

Wikipedia says there are orange morphs of P. Scaber, but that does not mean the giant oranges are P. Scabers. (they might be another variety) I'm close to connecting them to P. Scaber but not quite there. The reason I ask about this is P. Scaber is very hardy & can go to -2 degrees Celsius. I want to try & keep a large culture in my garage which gets down to 40 degrees. Yes, yes, I know they will not reproduce at that temp, I'm not in the business of mass producing bugs, but with that said my house is running out of spots to keep all my various cultures (experiments) and if someone knows for sure they will not survive 40 degrees then there is no sense in experimenting with that. They would just be one of the many backup bugs I am experimenting with. 

Thanks,
Dan


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

That's the problem with common names for things. It's a pain in the ass.


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## Michael Shrom (May 20, 2004)

Giant orange isopods are not P. scaber. They are spanish orange Porcellio sp. The term "giant orange" has crept up in the last couple years. I would not describe them as giant. I suspect some dart frog keepers started calling them giant because they are big compared to dwarf whites and purple micropods.


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