Eddie The Bugman
Life Aquaticus
A montage of the daily activities of Sminthurides aquaticus, Sminthurides aquaticus is a very common Collembola that can be found at the waters edge of most still bodies of water, ponds, lakes and slow moving streams. In this montage you can see courtship activities and grooming activities. The females are a lot larger than the males in this species, for courtship the males have specially adapted antennae which they use to link up with the females antennae, you can often see the females carrying the males around.
Males reach 0.5 mm in length whereas females grow to 1.0 mm.
See first of comments for link to rarely seen egg laying behaviour!!!!!!
VIEW LARGE
Life Aquaticus
A montage of the daily activities of Sminthurides aquaticus, Sminthurides aquaticus is a very common Collembola that can be found at the waters edge of most still bodies of water, ponds, lakes and slow moving streams. In this montage you can see courtship activities and grooming activities. The females are a lot larger than the males in this species, for courtship the males have specially adapted antennae which they use to link up with the females antennae, you can often see the females carrying the males around.
Males reach 0.5 mm in length whereas females grow to 1.0 mm.
See first of comments for link to rarely seen egg laying behaviour!!!!!!
VIEW LARGE