.... in brackish water

When I'm wandering around in woodland, I'm quite used to seeing wee Springtails (Collembola sp.) trucking around under logs and so on, but I rarely come across the marine species. When I was on Skye in June, however, there were lots of them in the brackish pools near the beach. It's fascinating to watch them grouping together and breaking off regularly from the main body .... ping, ping, ping .... as though they are being propelled by some extraneous force. They then form either new groups or re-aggregate with the main group, and so it goes on. I saw several pools with them doing this marine dance while I was there. These are a few of them. This species may be Anurida maritima, but that is not definitive.

 

This is information from Wiki:

 

"The entire body of the Collembola is covered with white hydrophobic hairs which allow the animal to stay above the surface of the water on which it spends much of its life. Aggregation is an important aspect of collembolan biology, and A. maritima has been shown to produce an aggregating pheromone. Like many intertidal animals, A. maritima moves in rhythm with the tidal cycle, and has an endogenous circatidal rhythm with a period of hours, using visual cues to orient themselves during their movements."

Wiki

 

 

Done