Rosy Woodlouse

🔤 Taxonomy

Androniscus dentiger Verhoeff, 1908 is accepted by GBIF and WoRMS. Historical combinations and synonyms include Trichoniscus dentiger, Itea dentiger and Androniscus weberi. Identification should use adults: the pink colour is helpful but not sufficient by itself.

📌 Description

Adults are approximately 5–6 mm, with males usually smaller. The body is rose, orange-red or pinkish, bears rows of coarse tubercles and has one dark ommatidium on each side. It occurs deep under stones, rubble and organic debris in humid, often calcareous places.

Species-specific captive limits for temperature, humidity, lifespan and breeding are not published. The following protocol is therefore a habitat-based starting point rather than a proven optimum.

🌍 Distribution

The documented range covers western and central Europe and parts of southern Europe, with records also reported from North Africa. It is often synanthropic and has reached heated sites and North American greenhouses. Older syntheses explicitly did not confirm it from Spain or Portugal.

The map conservatively shades European countries supported by catalog or modern faunistic records. Unresolved North African reports and introduced greenhouse populations are not shaded.

Conservative documented range of Androniscus dentiger

⚖️ Legal status

Checked on 2026-08-29: A. dentiger was not found in CITES, EU wildlife-trade Annexes A–D under Regulation (EU) 2026/1383, or Bern Appendices II–III. Local and national rules on collection, caves, protected land, soil transport, imports and non-native organisms still apply.

Use traceable established stock, never collect inside a protected cave or reserve, and sterilize discarded substrate. Release is never acceptable.

🤌 Husbandry

House a verified starter group in a tightly sealed 20 × 15 × 15 cm box with 8 cm or more of mineral-rich humus. Provide embedded stones that cannot shift, leaf litter, decomposed hardwood and a continuously damp lower refuge with gentle airflow above.

Quarantine for 45–60 days using separate tools. Cover vents with very fine mesh and work over a catch tub. ReptiFiles has no species guide; its general clean-up-crew advice is only supplementary.

💡 Lighting

UVB is not required. Use dim indirect daylight or room lighting with uninterrupted darkness under stones and bark. Keep the enclosure away from direct sun.

🌡 Heating and temperature

Cool-to-mild room conditions are a defensible starting point; added heat is usually unnecessary. Cave, scree and northern synanthropic records demonstrate tolerance of varied macroclimates, not one captive target. Prevent rapid warming and retain a cooler, damp side.

💧 Humidity and water

Maintain constant contact moisture in the lower substrate and beneath cover, but keep pore spaces aerated. Add water to one side rather than spraying all surfaces. Do not provide an open dish.

Clustering at the wet edge or incomplete moults suggests excessive drying. Sour substrate, flooding, persistent condensation and animals climbing the walls indicate too much water or too little ventilation.

🌿 Enclosure and decoration

Blend pesticide-free mineral soil, leaf mould, crushed deciduous leaves and soft-decayed hardwood. Add stable flat limestone or bark, a small moss pocket and crushed limestone or cuttlebone for calcium. Rest stones on the enclosure floor before adding substrate so they cannot crush burrowers.

Climate accordions are omitted because sheltered soil, cave and rubble microsites are buffered and the synanthropic range is partly transport-driven.

🪳 Feeding

Keep decomposed deciduous litter and wood continuously available. Offer minute mushroom, root-vegetable or dried-green fragments once or twice weekly, plus a tiny occasional protein item and permanent calcium. Remove fresh remnants promptly.

This ration is inferred from trichoniscid detritivory and habitat, not from a controlled A. dentiger feeding study.

🥚 Breeding

Females retain embryos in a ventral marsupium and release mancae; “viviparous” is the repository’s structured category. Captive brood sizes, maturity and lifespan are not defensibly quantified.

Stable substrate moisture and mature microbial food should precede any attempt to stimulate reproduction. Do not isolate gravid females. Divide only a growing colony with multiple age classes and transfer mature substrate.

🩺 Common problems

Misidentification: colour alone is insufficient; examine mature specimens.
Drying: deepen moisture under cover without soaking the whole surface.
Crushing: anchor stonework before substrate is added.
Mould and mites: reduce fresh food and improve air exchange.
Escapes: use fine mesh and inspect lid seals.
No juveniles: improve stability and verify the group before changing temperature.

📌 Conclusion

The rosy woodlouse is an attractive but inconspicuous soil animal for experienced microfauna keepers. Verified identity, stable humid pore spaces and fine containment matter more than elaborate equipment.