Spirostreptus spp.
Identity confidence: provisional. This is a genus, group, or trade name rather than a confirmed species. Treat it as the closest match we can stand behind, and use the more conservative end of any range.
African Olive Millipedes: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: The African olive millipedes: large, hardy, communal humid-tropical millipedes, essentially the same care as the African giant. Adults reach about 5-7 inches. Note that most hobby 'Spirostreptus', including S. servatius, have been transferred to the genus Analocostreptus.
Group: Industry StaplesDifficulty: Spice 2: BeginnerSetup: Tropical communal millipede (humid)Handling: Brief contact tolerated. Handling is optional and never required for good care, and a fall can injure the animal.
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 72-82°F |
|---|---|
| Humidity | High with cross ventilation; moist throughout, surface allowed to dry between waterings (80%+) |
| Setup Type | Tropical communal millipede (humid) |
| Substrate | Deep hardwood-leaf/rotted-wood substrate with organic soil; moist throughout |
| Feeding | Decaying hardwood leaves, rotted wood, calcium, veggie supplements; no citrus |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 2: Beginner |
| Handling | Brief contact tolerated. Handling is optional and never required for good care, and a fall can injure the animal. |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- terrestrial burrow setup for juveniles
- Large custom enclosure for adult groups
Warnings First
- Substrate is food: deep, edible, hardwood-leaf based
- Keep moist throughout, but ventilated; don't let it dry out
- Needs calcium and decaying hardwood leaves
- Moist throughout is the highest-risk moisture profile for stagnation. Cross ventilation low on two opposite walls is what makes it workable.
Simple Care
- Deep edible substrate: decayed hardwood leaves, rotted wood, organic soil.
- Cross ventilation low on two opposite walls: with the whole column moist, surface airflow is doing all the work.
- Moist throughout with airflow; a moss patch for humidity.
- Shallow water dish packed with pebbles so juveniles cannot drown.
- Communal-tolerant in a roomy, deep, well-fed bin.
- Cuttlebone for calcium; veggies as treats; no citrus.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- Hobby 'African olive' millipedes from humid African forest. The taxonomy has moved under this trade name: most nominal Spirostreptus species, including the familiar servatius, were transferred to Analocostreptus, so Analocostreptus servatius (Attems, 1914) is the accepted combination. Care is essentially the African-giant-millipede template: a deep, edible, hardwood-leaf-and-rotted-wood substrate kept moist throughout with airflow above.
- Communal-tolerant in a roomy, deep, well-fed bin.
- Keeping the whole column moist rather than running a gradient means there is no dry reserve to buffer things, so the airflow carries the entire load. Put vents low on two opposite walls, at or just above the substrate, so air crosses the surface. Without that, a uniformly moist bin composts anaerobically and the substrate the animals eat turns sour.
- Ventilation and ambient humidity trade against each other, and here the trade is at its sharpest. Let the surface dry back a little between waterings rather than topping up on a fixed schedule, and let the vents flow rather than sealing to hold humidity.
- Judge by squeeze and smell rather than by gauge. Substrate clumps like a wrung-out sponge at every depth, releases no free water, and smells like forest floor. On a moist-throughout bin the smell test is your main early warning.
- Keep a shallow water dish packed with pebbles so the waterline sits below the rim, and mist under the leaf litter and moss rather than over the surface. That lets the exposed surface dry between waterings while the grazing layer stays damp.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Decayed hardwood leaves and rotted wood are the staple; cuttlebone for calcium; veggies as supplements. No citrus, no treated wood or pesticides.
- Replace substrate gradually; the substrate is the food, the shelter, and the humidity buffer all at once.
- Molting: millipedes molt underground, sealing into a chamber and going still for days or weeks. Never dig up or disturb a buried animal, keep that part of the substrate from drying out, and keep cuttlebone available, since they eat the shed exoskeleton to reclaim calcium.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Sub-Saharan Africa: humid forest leaf litter.
- Habitat translation: A deep, edible, hardwood-leaf-and-rotted-wood substrate kept moist throughout with airflow above, plus a cuttlebone and detritus to graze on.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Adult size ~5-7 in; a long-lived detritivore, slow to mature like the other big millipedes.
- About as beginner-friendly as millipedes get: if you can keep an Archispirostreptus gigas, you can keep these.
- Like the big millipedes generally, it can ooze a benzoquinone defence fluid when stressed; wash hands after handling.
- Taxonomy note: 32 nominal Spirostreptus species were moved to Analocostreptus Silvestri, 1910, leaving true Spirostreptus sensu Brandt, 1833 a much smaller group. MilliBase now lists Spirostreptus servatius as unaccepted in favor of Analocostreptus servatius. Big Z's Cameroon Green Millipede is already listed under Analocostreptus. The two animals are closer relatives than the genus names suggest. Keeping the guide title as the trade name because that is what suppliers and customers still use.