Springtail - Sexual dimorphism
Another couple from a series looking at sizes and colouration in this Katiannid springtail species. These two were in our Staffordshire garden this morning and nicely demonstrate the sexual dimorphism of the species with respect to colouration. The mature male on the left shows the typical orange/red dorsal colour. The mature female on the right lacks this.
The female is 1.3 mm long. The largest I've measured was 1.4mm. The male in this image was 1.1 mm (just). NB: he's not to the same scale as the female.
Canon MP-E65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x tele-extender + 25mm extension tube + diffused MT24-EX Twinlite flash. Cropped.
Springtail - Sexual dimorphism
Another couple from a series looking at sizes and colouration in this Katiannid springtail species. These two were in our Staffordshire garden this morning and nicely demonstrate the sexual dimorphism of the species with respect to colouration. The mature male on the left shows the typical orange/red dorsal colour. The mature female on the right lacks this.
The female is 1.3 mm long. The largest I've measured was 1.4mm. The male in this image was 1.1 mm (just). NB: he's not to the same scale as the female.
Canon MP-E65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x tele-extender + 25mm extension tube + diffused MT24-EX Twinlite flash. Cropped.