Springtail Survey
In the garden early today to check for springtails for the survey. I have a number of terracotta pot fragments arranged in the area frequented by these. They were all frozen to the surfaces and as I prised them off one by one, I wasn't expecting to find anthing. Luckily, one pot fragment has this underneath it. As it was so cold, the springtail wasn't too keen to move. That allowed me to orientate the fragment and get a range of shots. Frans is speculating that there may be two distinct groups; Group 1 where abd.6 in adults is pale, and Group 2 where abd.6 in adults is dark. This is a mature (1.3 mm) Group 2 individual and as the sub-anal appendage is visible, it's a female.
[Part of a garden survey of the "novel" springtail Katiannidae Genus nov.1 sp. nov. that I'm doing for FransJanssens@www.collembola.org to establish the size and differences between the various instars.
Canon MP-E65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x tele-extender + 25mm extension tube + diffused MT24-EX Twinlite flash. Cropped.]
Springtail Survey
In the garden early today to check for springtails for the survey. I have a number of terracotta pot fragments arranged in the area frequented by these. They were all frozen to the surfaces and as I prised them off one by one, I wasn't expecting to find anthing. Luckily, one pot fragment has this underneath it. As it was so cold, the springtail wasn't too keen to move. That allowed me to orientate the fragment and get a range of shots. Frans is speculating that there may be two distinct groups; Group 1 where abd.6 in adults is pale, and Group 2 where abd.6 in adults is dark. This is a mature (1.3 mm) Group 2 individual and as the sub-anal appendage is visible, it's a female.
[Part of a garden survey of the "novel" springtail Katiannidae Genus nov.1 sp. nov. that I'm doing for FransJanssens@www.collembola.org to establish the size and differences between the various instars.
Canon MP-E65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x tele-extender + 25mm extension tube + diffused MT24-EX Twinlite flash. Cropped.]