Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatian"

Sorry to revive a thread but I found one of these in my garden today and it's carrying babies, I'm certain its the same species and if it drops offspring successfully I'd like to see if ours carry the same trait. Mine was found In Connecticut.

 
dragonfire1577 said:
Sorry to revive a thread but I found one of these in my garden today and it's carrying babies, I'm certain its the same species and if it drops offspring successfully I'd like to see if ours carry the same trait. Mine was found In Connecticut.
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Interesting, sure it's not a Dalmatian P.scaber? Those are a lot more common. Would be very cool if it was indeed another Dalmatian Oniscus asellus strain, keep me posted!

 
I am very curious if one of yours was bred to one of mine once isolated, would It produce more dalmatian patterned animals? Do you have any idea where your colony originated from geographically?

 
dragonfire1577 said:
I am very curious if one of yours was bred to one of mine once isolated, would It produce more dalmatian patterned animals? Do you have any idea where your colony originated from geographically?
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Mine are producing about %98 Dalmatian offspring, I still find one or two normal looking juveniles occasionally, but I think with time they will breed %100 true. Not sure what genetics your strain carries, so it's possible that crosses between out two strains may produce more or less Dalmatian patterned individuals than if we kept them isolated, and who knows, maybe other morphs could pop up too?

My Oniscus asellus come from two different populations, one in Meridian ID, and the other in Boise ID, I caught them all myself. I started with normal looking individuals, and these popped up years later.

 
I have noticed your specimens appear to have more of grey spots while mine has quite dark spotting regardless of lighting, I also see patterns in many of yours where the spots are either smaller or there is connecting patterns spanning from one side of the body to the other at least to some extent while my specimen shows larger blotches without these connecting patterns. The gene may or may not be the same (I feel it likely is) but the populations being different likely has some impact, I will be treating this as at least a separate strain of the same gene until proving otherwise is possible. I feel we would need to see them side to side and compare then along with test breeding the two.

 
I'm not sure, but I think that the amount and patterning of black on all Dalmatian isopod strains varies between individual specimens and is not always the result of genetics.

 
It definitely does, this is based on the intensity of the black at it's deepest on my single animal compared to all the ones I've seen of his. On the other hand I obviously need to see more examples of my strain to confirm this is normal.

 
dragonfire1577 said:
I have noticed your specimens appear to have more of grey spots while mine has quite dark spotting regardless of lighting, I also see patterns in many of yours where the spots are either smaller or there is connecting patterns spanning from one side of the body to the other at least to some extent while my specimen shows larger blotches without these connecting patterns. The gene may or may not be the same (I feel it likely is) but the populations being different likely has some impact, I will be treating this as at least a separate strain of the same gene until proving otherwise is possible. I feel we would need to see them side to side and compare then along with test breeding the two.
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My "normal" looking individuals are starting to become lighter and lighter with each generation, they definitely aren't as dark grey as the first individuals I caught. It's hard to notice sometimes, and definitely hard to pick up on camera, but they are becoming lighter for sure, so the grey spots on my Dalmatians are probably also lighter than the spots on your strain.

There also seem to be several different distinct patterns going on in my Dalmatian population, so I could probably isolate several different morphs with selective breeding, but I don't have the space for that right now unfortunately.

Another interesting thing happening in my "normal" colony, is that a lot of light tan individuals are showing up, some with more orangish coloration, (I've isolated those to their own container), so in addition to the "normal" individuals getting lighter, the population is now full of these tan individuals too... I'm just gonna ride it out and see what odd color morphs come out of this genetic mix.

 
dragonfire1577 said:
Sorry to revive a thread but I found one of these in my garden today and it's carrying babies, I'm certain its the same species and if it drops offspring successfully I'd like to see if ours carry the same trait. Mine was found In Connecticut.
Click to expand...
Nice find for sure!  Good luck in reproducing this trait!!  I'd love to obtain offspring from both of your culturing efforts with this species!

 
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So update, I picked up a leaf the female was sitting on and a baby crawled out from under her! The baby obviously doesn't have visible colors yet but It's a start! I will be seeing how these offspring come out color wise and will be leaving them as a group and waiting for second generation offspring to see if they carry the trait.

 
dragonfire1577 said:
So update, I picked up a leaf the female was sitting on and a baby crawled out from under her! The baby obviously doesn't have visible colors yet but It's a start! I will be seeing how these offspring come out color wise and will be leaving them as a group and waiting for second generation offspring to see if they carry the trait.
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Awesome, congrats! :D In a couple molts or so you should be able to tell whether they are Dalmatians or not, hopefully your gal produced some similar looking offspring! 

 
dragonfire1577 said:
Well I just confirmed there is at minimum 15 offspring.
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Nice, congrats man! :)

My culture is booming right now, lots of medium sized individuals and tons of mancae now, (the individuals in my strain apparently reach sexual maturity at a smaller size than most other O.asellus strains in culture). Here are a few pictures of some huddled on a leaf:

O.asellusMGD%252312.JPG


O.asellusMGD%252313.JPG


O.asellusMGD%252314.JPG


 
Very tasty-looking.

The Dalmatians on bugsincyberspace only have a few pathetic white flecks, so I like them a lot.

 
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