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Garden Springtail Survey

One from today. I've been seeing this form in the garden for a few days but haven't managed decent shots before. This one paused sufficiently for me to get several shots. I've blended elements from each shot to produce this composite.

 

This (to me) is a "classic" Group 1 mature (~1.25mm) form. It has a dark pigmentation pattern on the abdomen with abd.6 non-pigmented. The abdomen also has little orange/red pigmentation. The head however, does have orange pigmentation. Occasionally I see very darkly pigmented forms (see yesterday's image for example) that do not have any orange pigmentation of the head (except perhaps for a small dot). Group 1 and Group 2 forms usually do though.

 

[Part of a garden survey of the "novel" springtail Katiannidae Genus nov.1 sp. nov. that I'm doing with FransJanssens@www.collembola.org initially, to establish the size and differences between sexes and the various instars. As a result of the initial findings, Frans is suggesting that there are two distinct groups:

 

Group 1 - where abd.6 in adults is pale and there is little red pigmentation along the dorsal surface of the abdomen, and

 

Group 2 - where abd.6 in adults is dark and there is (sometimes) significant red pigmentation along the dorsal surface of the abdomen..

 

Canon MP-E65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x tele-extender + 25mm extension tube + diffused YN24EX flash. Cropped.]

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Uploaded on November 21, 2017
Taken on November 21, 2017