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I went to the local churchyard quite early today, while things were still damp, looking for globular springtails again. Saw quite a few different species including what looks like Sminthurinus igniceps.
I saw lots of these last year at the same location. The literature suggests that this species is limited to hothouse environments but this is a chilly Warwickshire churchyard. Perhaps they've become acclimatised!
I've reverted to my "special" setup (for invertebrates less than 1mm) for this shot. Canon 5D3 and MP-E macro lens (at x5 magnification) with 1.4 Extender and a 36mm extension tube. I have a special bracket that allows me to position the MT-24EX flash heads really close too. I'll try a complete set of extension tubes tomorrow if I get the opportunity.
Male Allacma fusca (ID-cred: Frans Janssens)
A 3mm long globular springtail on a leaf.
Two exposures manually stacked.
Dug this up from the archives inspired by this posted by flickr-member Adrian Jones. Obviously, this is not nearly as fascinating as his find but at least it's a springtail!
This is from Öland/Sweden (see geo-tagging).
Springtail I think Dicyrtomina saundersi, from the garden, TQ 40100 68716
The real size is 1.4 mm, magnification is 6.02
There's lots of little globular springtails around locally at the moment. When I say "little", I'm talking 0.5mm or less. So today, in an attempt to get maximum magnification, I finally got around to trying the MP-E 65mm macro lens at full-extension (5x magnification) with a 1.4x tele-extender and a full set (68mm) of Kenko extension tubes. I imagine this gives around 9x magnification. The shot is lit with an MT-24EX Twin Lite flash.
So, this is what one of these little springtails looks like through the viewfinder with this setup. This is an un-cropped image from a full-frame Canon 5D3. The springtail is about 0.5mm. I'm not sure of the species here though.
At this sort of magnification, it's somewhat challenging to actually find the subject through the viewfinder (these are barely visible naked-eye) and to then then get decent focus. This was the only reasonable shot that I managed (from around 20). Just needs more practice! The camera was supported on a beanbag.
Entomobrya nr imitabilis, will have to wait a week or two Frans , still to small to photograph :-( 1.2mm found this one opposite side of river down stream so got 2 places to look now. I wonder if 1.3mm is there adult size , jan & feb this year 1.3mm was the only size I found . all approx. look a right fool trying to measure a springtail that small, and on the move :-))
A young small springtail, about 1mm, taken with MPE at 5x mag and uncropped, on a blade of grass. Very lucky find, there are lots of blades of grass and few springtails!
Tiny. I didn't see them my Nephew found them. Under a broken pottery shard.
Brocton Heights Cannock Chase Staffordshire UK
Springtail on a greenhouse strut. Focus stacked using zerene. See www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/32586571082/ for a 3D version
A couple of juveline instars in the garden today, both ~0.45 mm. I'm trying to find more of these for the survey. They've been a bit thin on the ground!
[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.]
In spite of all the rain and good numbers of springtails over the last few weeks (dominated by Dicyrtomina saundersi), Isotomids have been largely missing. However, the recent haul of leaf litter had good number of Isotoma viridis, a species I have not seen since last winter.
Thanks to Frans Janssens for the ID.
Found during a night hike in Cuc Phuong national park, Vietnam.
Tiny springtail (aren't they all?)
Family: Tomoceridae
Tilden Park pond
Berkeley, California
Springtails are generally about 6 mm longer (or less). This one was about 4 mm (0.25 inches). I was taking shots of some water-striders and this little guy wandered into the scene.
From Wikipedia: "Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects."
You've probably heard the expression -- "It it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it's probably a duck!" Well, it used to be that if it was a tiny bug and had six legs, it was an insect. That's simplifying things a bit, but now all you can say is "It ain't necessarily so!"
Most insects have wings -- at least for part of their life-cycle -- and Collembola do not.
This springtail appears to be making its own tiny dent in space-time -- or causing the carpet to sag a bit under its weight, tiny as it is. But that's not a carpet -- that's the surface of the pond -- as you can see from the waterplants visible in the water underneath. That's how small this guy is.
Generally springtails are not aquatic -- and it's unlikely this one is either. They can often be found in leaf-litter -- dead and decaying piles of leaves. Something must have flung this one into the water. Maybe I kicked up some leaves as I knelt down to take pictures of the water-striders. And then it apparently hit the water and bounced like it was on a trampoline.
Its weight wasn't enough to make much of an impression upon the surface tension of the water. I don't know if it was able to simply scurry along and get back on land -- but it's unlikely it drowned. It's too tiny and too buoyant.
Frans Janssens, from Belgium, an expert on Collembola who has a webpage devoted to them at www.Collembola.org, informs me that this is likely a member of the family Tomoceridae.
From Janssens' website, I've learned that 400-million-year old fossils of Collembola have been found. They are believed to have evolved from ancient aquatic crustaceans. They are described as "dominating the Devonian" Period -- as far as small terrestrials creatures are concerned. This was the period when the first amphibians ventured on land. For an amusing non-scientific account of this period, I highly recommend a short story by Italo Calvino called "The Aquatic Uncle" from his book "Cosmicomics."
There are 8,000 described species of Collembola which have been described and identified. They are present in great numbers throughout much of the world -- and are said to be the most numerous of all non-microscopic animals.
Recent changes in classification -- which are far from settled -- have basically moved three different classes of wingless hexapods out of the Class Insecta and into other groupings (taxonomy is complex). Older sources include these three orders of wingless insects within a total of 29 insect orders (and About.com is one of these not-entirely current sources).
Silverfish and firebrats are wingless insects which remain in the class Insecta. They belong to the order Thysanura. Lice are insects, too -- and they are wingless also. It would be simpler for all non-scientists if all wingless insects were moved out of the class Insecta -- but at present that has not taken place.
About.com lists 29 orders of insects -- and all but nine of them end with "ptera" in the order name. "Ptera" means wing. But three of those orders, as mentioned previously, have now been moved out of the Class Insecta -- and the order Odonata, which does not end in "ptera" is made up of damselflies and dragonflies, which do have wings. So that means there remain five orders of Insecta which may or may not have wings. Unless some of those, too, have been reclassified recently.
So it isn't strictly true to say "All insects have wings" -- and I thought this was true. Now I know better -- and I'll have to stop saying and thinking that wings and insects are always linked
.
It is true that insects are the only kind of invertebrates to have developed flight -- and I have that fact to console me!
Globular springtails on the side of my large pond just near the water line. I assume they are Sminthurides aquaticus although I'm puzzled that it is only the small ones picking each other up by the antennae - I thought this was part of their courtship behaviour ?
Found this pretty little thing on a window cill.
Useful link for these:
ws1.roehampton.ac.uk/collembola/taxonomy/%28185ENint%29.html