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I've got aquatic springtails (Sminthurides) breeding in our garden wildlife pond. I've been taking lots of photographs over the last couple of days to try to get shots of the front feet. Why; because I might have an interesting species!
A recent shot that I posted was commented upon by FransJanssens@www.collembola.org. I had called it Sminthurides aquaticus but Frans said that the structure of the front foot was not correct for that species (in technical terms; the empodium was longer than the claw and it should be shorter). He suggested that it MIGHT be a form of Sminthurides penicillifer that is a Sminthurides aquaticus look-alike. This has not been reported in the UK before.
My attempts at front-foot shots amounted to nothing today, but I did like this one so thought I'd post it. Foot photography will continue tomorrow!
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!
1.6 mm long, and from moss-covered scree in a damp wood. I've tried to go through the key with this, and so far failed. Any ideas?
The face looks rather like a Calvatomina to me, except that the eyes should be on a pale patch...
The creeping Veronica in our rock wall is really pretty now, and after I examined the shot on the computer screen, I realized that there was a small yellow springtail (family Sminthuridae) on one of the flowers. It's a bit over a mm in size.
Dicyrtomina ornata is a springtail species from the Dicyrtomidae family. The scientific name of the species was first validly published in 1842 by Nicolet
It is very similar to Dicyrtomina saundersi but differs from this in that the beams on the fifth abdomen segment merge into a spot. Because the mark on the back is variable, it is difficult to distinguish this species with certainty from photo.
Anurida marÃtima.
Some of you will have seen my posts in this group of terrestrial springtials, AKA Collembolla. Collembola are hexapods not insects and are one of the most widely spread and numerous of all animals in the world. They live virtually everywhere; car parks and city streets, in sand, up trees, on water, in houses, on plants and very commonly in and around soil. Wherever you go, looking with a hand-lens, there will most likely be a collembolan scampering away from you. In sheer numbers, they are reputed to be one of the most abundant of all macroscopic animals, with estimates of 100,000 individuals per square meter of ground. I say macroscopic but they are tiny, most are only 2-3mm long.
They're officially the deepest living land animal, with a new species, Plutomurus ortobalaganensis, found in Krubera-Veronja cave in the Western Caucacus at a depth of 1,980 metres (6,500 feet) below ground. It was tempted out using cheese.
Desoria species of Collembola happily live on the summit of Mount Everest, while another genus in Tasmania lives for certainly part of its life, underwater, eating crunchy diatoms.
Collembola are one of nature's ultimate niche fillers, able to find a way into almost any environment in the world, given time. And time is something they've had a lot of. In 1919 a fossil collembolan, Rhyniella praecursor was found in the Rhynie chert. The chert dates to around 410 million years old, meaning that collembolans were one of the very first arthropods to become terrestrial.
This one, Anurida maritima (seashore springtail), is a cosmopolitan collembolan of the intertidal zone and is often found in aggregations of several hundred strong on the surface of rock pools. I had never seen one before today.
One from today; a large mature individual ~1.35 mm. 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 Group 1 individual.
[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.]
Nikon D7100
lomo 3.7x 0.11 objective
55mm Extension Tube
f/4.5 - 1/250 - ISO 100
Dual Viltrox jy-610n II Speedlights 1/32 1/32 Yongnuo YN-24EX Macro Twin Flash 1/32
Homemade Diffuser
6 Images stacked (Handheld)
Field / Live specimen