Trichoniscus pygmaeus observations
10/9/25
Two individuals of different morphs. Same location.
So far I've only seen these in two spots, but in both, the soil is loose with coarse grains and small rock fragments. This works out well for them since their way of escaping is almost always to dig away from me in the opposite direction. They're flexible and easily push themselves through this type of soil. They don't really dart or run on the surface, just go straight to digging.
Some have very light bodies with an iridescent yellow stripe/patch on their back and some are more brown. I saw that kind more recently and got hopeful that it was a t. pusillus, but nope. The clearest difference (imo) is the head. Pusillus has a consistently dark head to match the rest of its body with those light flecks visible in the light, but the pygmaeus I saw and seemingly a lot have lighter heads compared to the body.
When I look for them I just comb my fingers over the top of the soil and see them (if they're there) moving around underneath and trying to get further down when exposed. They're so small that it's kind of like the tiny version of flipping rocks to find regular size pods. I haven't seen any large clusters of them but there usually are several individuals in the same area.
