Sminthurinus minutus (New For Europe)

Well I went back to Sheffield Botanical Gardens today and found some very interesting Collembola. This one in particular is very interesting, these were the smallest Sminthurinus species I have found to date, they were about 0.5mm-0.6mm, the closest match I can find is Sminthurinus minutus, but I think this is an American species and I can find no British records.

 

The head has very distinctive orange pigmentation, white eyebrows and a clear band across the middle of the head, the abdomen is black with underlying orange/red (No white spots on any of the individuals) and orange antennae, the ends of the legs look to be orange. Any ideas Frans????

 

These were found in the hothouse/glasshouse, so there is a chance they are imports. I really struggled photographing these, I could hardly see these and I think I was getting misting on my lens.

 

***Just been informed that this is likely to be Sminthurinus minutus and is the first European record of this species :o)***

 

VIEW LARGE

Done