Southern Pill Isopods For Sale UK (Armadillidium depressum) - Bio-active Culture
Looking for the heavyweight champion of British isopods? Armadillidium depressum, the Southern Pill Isopod, is a wonderful UK native species loved for its large size, flattened armoured silhouette, and slate-grey mottled patterns.
Unlike the common woodlouse, the Southern Pill Isopod is broader and more robust, with an inability to roll into a perfectly closed sphere—leaving a gap when it rolls.
🔍 At A Glance: Southern Pill Isopod Husbandry Summary
Scientific Name: Armadillidium depressum
Common Names: Southern Pill Isopod | Southern Pill Bug
Adult Size & Lifespan: Up to 2.0cm (significantly larger and broader than the standard A. vulgare) | Long-lived species with adults reaching 2–3 years, forming stable, multi-generational colonies.
Breeding & Growth Rate: A slow-growing species that can take a little while to acclimate and settle into a new environment compared to faster-breeding isopods.
Ideal Climate: Temperature: 18–23°C (Kept at 21–22°C The EntoScapes Way) | Humidity: 70–80% (Kept at 70% The EntoScapes Way). Requires a distinct moisture gradient with a damp sphagnum moss hydration station covering one side and plenty of bark pieces over a drier zone.
Physical Identification & Behaviour: Features a shiny, smooth, slate-grey body with some individuals showing higher expressions of yellow spotting. Identified by a broad, robust silhouette and a fan-like out-curved pleon. Unique for its incomplete rolling defense—it leaves a small, fascinating gap when conglobated. Highly active, wall-climbing specialists that thrive when provided vertical cork bark or climbing ledges.
Place of Origin: Southwest Britain (with a specific geographic stronghold across limestone-rich regions of Somerset, Devon, Dorset, and South Wales), primarily adapted to well-drained stone walls and coastal environments.
Calcium & Substrate Enrichment: Due to their limestone-rich wild origins, they have an exceptionally high demand for calcium to maintain their heavy, thick exoskeletons. Substrates must be premium organic blends (strictly no coco coir, such as Premium Millipede Edible Substrate) enriched continuously with separate supplies of crushed cuttlebone, sepia, or eggshells to support successful moulting cycles.
Enclosure Sizing Guide: Smaller starter colonies thrive perfectly in a compact 20x15x15cm environment, while large, expanding master colonies scale cleanly up to a well-ventilated 40x20x20cm setup.
Dietary Base: Dedicated detritivore requirements built upon a deep layer (minimum 3cm) of hardwood leaf litter (oak, beech, hazel), rotten hardwood, flake soil, organic waste, mushrooms, and moisture-retentive moss.
Supplemental Nutrition: Fresh vegetables once a week (slices of cucumber, carrot, and sweet potato are firm favorites) to mitigate pest fly infestations, paired with a high-quality protein source once a week (fish flakes, shrimp pellets, or nutritional yeast).
Important Safety Note: We recommend NOT keeping these or any other protein-hungry isopods with millipedes, as they can sometimes nibble on them while they are vulnerable during delicate moulting cycles.
At EntoScapes, our Southern Pill Isopods are UK captive-bred and raised on our high-calcium, hardwood-rich substrates to ensure they arrive strong and ready to thrive.
Explore the sections below for our biology-led guide on their Southwest English origins, their unique incomplete rolling defence, and why these rugged, wall-climbing specialists are the perfect hardy addition to any temperate bioactive display.
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