View allAll Photos Tagged springtail
Last week it finally rained after a very long drought.So now it´s like Sping here and this is the 1st Springtail I´ve seen since February. So cute and small now!
Single shot of a small froup of springtails on a water barrel. The brown object is a slice of apple (going a bit off by now)
These are my favourite Collembola at present. Such wonderful bright yellow and orange colours. I will also add i find them the hardest to photograph as well, their eyes are not as pronounced and contrast strongly against the bright orange.
A mature individual from my local colony of a "novel" globular springtail. This type has been designated Katiannidae Genus nov.1 sp. nov. i.e. yet to be assigned to a genus and species. I think by the colouration that this is a fairly mature male. The mature females are less colourful, often with transverse bands of black pigment spots.
This is a single shot. They are a very active species and I haven't managed a focus-stack yet!
Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x Tele-extender + ST24-EX Twin Lite flash.
A few days after my return from Malaysia I have edited pictures of a nice red springtail.
Pictures taken by CANON EOS 5D mark II + CANON MP-E65 + flash + plastic diffuser.
One from today's springtail hunt at the local churchyard. I think this might be Monobella grassei, but I haven't seen one of these before. Also, the NBN distribution maps do not show this in Warwickshire.
I remembered reading that the Family Neanuridae (to which Monobella belongs) have a pointed mouth cone, so I've embedded a selection from another shot which shows this.
Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm (at 5x) + 1.4x Extender + 36mm extension tube + MT24-EX Flash. Cropped a bit.
I'd added a complete set (68mm) of extension tubes to my MP-E 65mm lens, hoping to find some Sminthurinus springtails. The first springtail I encountered though, was this Dicyrtomina saundersi. I could see that its furca was extended, so thought it would be an interesting subject. I got eight shots at F6.3, but the flash didn't fire on one. Nontheless, I combined them in Zerene Stacker and it worked out quite well
I wasn't sure what was going on here, and wondered whether the springtail was in pre-moult? Not only is the furca extended, but an everted collophore vesicle is also visible. It was still alive and was making slight movements. The truth is likely to be much less pleasant! (Please see Frans Janssens' comments below).
Canon 1D3 + MP-E 65mm Macro (at x5) + 68mm of extension tubes + MT24-EX Flash.
Before we moved recently, I used to visit the local village churchyard most days, looking for invertebrates. Since moving, opportunities have been fewer, but I did manage a trip today. I'm pleased I went. I found several interesting invertebrates in leaf litter, including this globular springtail.
This was a very small individual (around 0.6mm) and it exhibits interesting colouration. It could perhaps, be a pale form of Sminthurinus igniceps; I'm not sure. Interesting though, is the "moustache"-shaped area of pigmentation on the lower "face". This is typically seen in Sminthurinus elegans but not in Sminthurinus igniceps. Interesting!
Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm (at x5) + 2x Tele-extender + MT24-EX Twinlite flash.
Springtail of genus Protaphorura (Collembola: Onychiuridae). Details of unknown sensory organ just above the left antenna.
Sorry about all the pics of globular springtails but I love these things :). About 1.7mm body length
Messingham - 18-04-26 - My first macro outing this year. A variety of little critters found around the reserve.
We trekked all the way over to Pickworth for two reasons, first because it is a biologically rich area which is seriously under recorded, and second to put dots on the atlas - it's as far east as you can go without being in Lincolnshire. Indeed on entering the wood you can stand with one foot in VC55 and the other in VC53 (selfie temptation resisted). And on entering the wood virtually the first thing we saw was an Orange Underwing (Archiearis parthenias). The Lepidoptera were spectacular - by the end of the day though we'd seen dozens of Orange Undwerwings (I stopped counting at 20) plus too many Brimstone and Peacock butterflies to count, three Commas and two male Orange Tips. It was hot and sweaty and I got sunburnt because I had not adjusted my headgear from winter (wooly) to summer (floppy). However, butterfly weather is not springtail weather, and the dry, cracked soil put a crimp in springtails recording, although we found many of the usual suspects. Pickworth is on the list for return visits in more favourable conditions.
I have to admit to still not putting too much effort into springtails recently. Although we've had rain now the ground is still very dry and unproductive so all samples have come from sweeping or beating vegetation. I sampled a couple of sites near Croxton Kerrial and also at Charley on Charnwood. I didn't find anything very exciting but Deuterosminthurus pallipes is by far the most frequent species at the moment. Every one of the hundreds I have found have been the yellow form - I've still only ever found a single specimen of the purple nominate form.
Well, it's been a bit damp recently and it's also ages since I've been springtail-hunting in my local churchyard. I spent many happy hours there last autumn/winter photographing them and seeing how species changed during the "season". For me, the springtail "season" means the time that I'm not photographing bees/wasps primarily; October to March-ish.
It's likely that we will be moving house shortly, and I'll miss my regular churchyard photo-sessions. There's a village church where we're moving to though, so time to start exploring new territory perhaps!
I wasn't disappointed today as there was lots of springtail activity. I find that the underside of fallen laurel leaves provides an environment they seem to like. Lots of very small juveniles around too, so should be lots to see over the coming weeks. It soon became apparent to me though that I'd lost the knack of photographing them and need to polish my technique. Also, the images I got with my Canon 1D3 today, weren't of the quality I was getting with my 5D3 last year. I'll revert to my usual setup before I go looking again.
It's also clear that I need to look back over last year's images and remind myself how to attempt to differentiate this little critters. I think that apart from the one top-right (not sure about that one), these are all Sminthurinus species. Bottom right looks like one of the Sminthurinus aureus f. reticulata types that I was seeing last year that have a pigment "moustache". Good to see them again!
Ptenothrix renateae, globular springtail, on Resurrection Fern (Pleopeltis michauxiana). The underside of the frond here shows the peltate scales which are critical for rehydration of the fern and aid in water distribution.
I feel particularly excited today. Recently, at the local churchyard, I've spotted (through my hand-lens), what I thought might be the globular springtail Sminthurinus elegans. This is a species that I've not managed to photograph before. In the past, they have always "sprung" off of the leaf before I could get them in may camera viewfinder. Today, this one obliged for a few seconds and I got this, and another, lateral shot. In focus too! I think that it is Sminthurinus elegans. I couldn't see the fine mid-dorsal stripe though, that is apparently diagnostic for the species. Perhaps it's Sminthurinus elegans f. ornata. I await the thoughts of the experts. It's certainly a species or colour-form that I've not encountered before.
It might seem strange to get so excited about seeing something so small. This individual is only ~ 0.5mm. But to me, a trip around my local churchyard is like a mini-safari. Seeing this, is like spotting my first leopard!
Interestingly, I find that these little Sminthurinus springtails are particularly "sensitive" and more likely to spring away than some other genera. Today, I took a sheet of white paper with me and positioned the leaf on this. After the shot, this springtail jumped off the leaf and landed about 5cm from the edge of the paper. It then jumped right off the sheet. That's over 100 times its own length!
(Springtails have a special twin-forked organ - the furca - that is held in tension under the body. When the springtail is disturbed, the furca is released. springing the springtail into the air).
Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm (at x5) + 1.4x Extender + MT24-EX Flash. Cropped a little.
Quite a few colourful globular springtails in the garden today, all Dicyrtomina saundersi as far as I can tell. They stayed still on the surface of standing water, but drifted about imperceptibly, rendering most attempts at focus stacks a failure. This was the best I could do.
Canon EOS 5D mark III, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT (handheld, Live View manual focus).
~5x(65mm, f/5.6, 1/200, ISO 800) (5x magnification, stacked in HeliconFocus).