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More of these pale yellowish springtails grazing at the edge of the garden pond.
© 2013 Monique van Someren * all rights reserved * please do not use without permission
I was sitting by a Digger Wasp burrow in my Staffordshire garden waiting for one to return with a fly. I idly picked up a beech leaf from the lawn and checked underneath with my hand lens. This Sminthurinus globular springtail was there.
Ever since I've been photographing globular springtails I've been looking for one of the species with these pale abdominal spots. Of course, I've got the wrong lens arrangement on my camera, the wrong settings and nowhere suitable close at hand to rest the leaf. Anyway, I just put the leaf back on the lawn and tried a few shots.
This one's not too bad (although heavily cropped). I'm not sure if this is Sminthurinus trinotatus or Sminthurinus bimaculatus. It's a little over 0.5mm in length. Whatever, I've finally found one of these "white spot" species. I looked under virtually all the other leaves on the lawn but couldn't find another one!
Globular springtail on dew covered water barrel lid with a red milk bottle top placed behind it. Focus stacked using zerene
All though it has been a cold Winter, i don't think this little guy has bought himself a warm fur coat.
Is it a fungal infection. ?
An interesting mature female (1.35 mm) from the garden today. Abdominal segment 6 (abd.6) is less pigmented than abd.5, but does have some darker areas at the tip. There's no orange/red colouration (apart from the little dots where the bothriotricha are anchored). As such, I'm favouring Group 1 rather than Group 2; but I'm open to negotiation!. Whatever, this is an attractive colour form.
[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 the various instars. As a result of the initial findings, Frans is speculating that there are two distinct groups:
Group 1 - where abd.6 in adults is pale, and
Group 2 - where abd.6 in adults is dark.
Canon MP-E65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x tele-extender + 25mm extension tube + diffused MT24-EX Twinlite flash. Several images blended in PSE. Cropped.]
Springtails at Swell Wood a few days ago. Many thanks to Max Thompson Photo and Ellie Hilsdon who scurried around finding likely-looking logs while I mostly sat at the picnic table!
There are quite a few of these in the garden, congregating under pieces of bark that I've distributed around the place. Frans Janssens suggested that I get some dorsal views to aid identification. This is from a couple of shots blended in PSE.
I think this might be the same species that I uploaded recently. That was either Isotomurus palustris or I. pseudopalustris.
I have noticed that the very young ones soon hide when one photograghs them. This is the same one I posted yesterday, hiding from me, under the flower! The adults seem less nervous and do´nt seem to mind. Had to get to ground level for this one!
I hope to learn if the setae can determine the sex for this species. I need help confirming the sex of these please.
This one appears to be male?
Another behaviour shot of the aquatic springtail Sminthurides aquaticus. This female (about 1mm long) is on a piece of bark that is floating on the surface of our garden pond.
These springtails produce a globule of fluid and then roll it around their body with their legs, to clean themselves. Fascinating to watch, but difficult to photograph. This individual was only about 1mm long. A composite of two images, blended in Photoshop.