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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!
We have a wildlife pond in our Staffordshire garden. As the seasons progress, numbers of aquatic springtails in the pond vary considerably. At the moment there are many hundreds (or thousands) clustered around the edge on the slate paving and jumping around in the water. Mainly, there are immature early instars.
Here there is a mature female Sminthurides aquaticus on the left and a much smaller male on the right. The males have "angled" antennae with modified bristles. The shape enables males and females to lock their antennae during courtship The smaller male is then often lifted into the air. note that the female is a feeding instar. The green colour on the dorsal surface of the abdomen is due to gut contents.
Canon 1D Mk IV + MP-E Macro (at x5) + full set on Kenko extension tubes + YN24EX twinlite flash. Cropped a bit.
Around 0.8mm - 0.9mm long, these springtails have appeared from nowhere on the lumps of suet that I feed to the the rest of my menagerie. I assume that they are Sminthurinus domesticus, a species which survives only in indoor locations in this part of the world.
I just wanted to take a picture of this very little springtail when there came a quick attack from the left side. The attacker was well hidden and I couldn't see what it was.
Love these little things... About 2 mm or so in length.
This one is showing its eversible vesicle cleaning tube.
100mm L macro with full set of Kenko extension tubes (thanks Steve for the use of)...
I went on a wildlife walk with a group of Shropshire naturalists on Wednesday. None of the group had experience of Collembola (springtails), so I said I'd try to photograph those that I saw. Typically, many I hadn't seen before and couldn't identify!
This is such as example. It's one of the Poduromorpha, which are slow-moving soil and leaf-litter dwellers. This one was quite active and at first I thought it might be a very yellow Kalaphorura burmeisteri. It doesn't seem to have the correct body shape; being widest at the penultimate abdominal segment. All help gratefully received!
[Update: Thanks to Eddie and Frans for the ID]
I've been neglecting my garden colony of Katiannid springtails recently. I've looked from time to time, but only seen some immature instars. Today I had a more intensive search.
Interestingly, there were none of the "typical" Group 1 and Group 2 adults, just this one "dark" form and two of "pale" forms (see previous image). Abd.6 has some pigmentation, but is paler than abd.5.
[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. Three images blended in PSE. Slightly cropped.]
Back to our little, less gaudy Tasmanian critters. This was grazing on fungi. A regular winter find. Dicrytomidae
I've been neglecting my garden colony of Katiannid springtails recently. I've looked from time to time, but only seen some immature instars. Today I had a more intensive search.
Interestingly, there were none of the "typical" Group 1 and Group 2 adults, just one "dark" form (see next image) and two of these "pale" forms; this one ~1.3 mm. The pale forms looked identical, the other individual was just fractionally smaller.
[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.
This piece of Cordyline leaf was frozen to the lawn in our garden this morning, but the springtail seemed happy. I understand that they produce glycerols that act as a natural anti-freeze.
This is a composite of two images, one for the "overall" appearance and one to show the sub-anal appendage (SAA). The presence of this indicates a female.
December 3, 2018
A Globular Springtail that I found under a shell on an old stump in our back yard.
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They are a challenge for aspiring macro-photographers, so I had to have one. With some patience you’ll find them on a leaf somewhere not to wet. And then the real challenge begins, finding one that stays in focus. A great sport I thought.
Springtail portrait
The fluorescence of the "skin" works as backlight for the scales, thus their structure is emphasized.
Mitutoyo 20 NA 0.42, tube lense: ITL200 (Nikon)
Illumination: backlight and UV (365nm)
Springtail, Tomocerus vulgaris
This species of springtails (collembola) is covered by small iridiscent scales. They are a kind of protection, but they get off easily - thus a tentative predator can not hold the springtail.
This is a living specimen, just "fixed" with a small droplet of water (adhesion) for a few seconds, to do the bracketing (around 300 single shots).
A magnified picture of a scale is here
Mitutoyo 7.4 NA 0.21, tube lense: ITL200 (Nikon)
Illumination: oblique and polarized backlight
This is another shot of the globular springtail that I posted earlier. I had assumed that it was Katiannidae Genus nov.2. Frans asked for a dorsal shot to exclude Katianna nr schotti, but this is the nearest to a dorsal shot that I got.
Any use Frans and what are the differentiating features?
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I picked up a new toy today and now have a new found interest in spring tails. This is a single image at the max mag on the 90mm but now doubled by having a 2x tele converter fitted. As my brain learns the new working distance I shall improve and might be able to get some stacks if any ever sit still long enough..
Spring tails are very small and also very interesting. They vary a lot. Some have eyes and some do not.
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Another from a series of shots I\'m doing for FransJanssens@www.collembola.org to establish the size and differences between the various instars of this Katiannid springtail. This one ticks another box!
It appears that as females of this species mature, some develop red pigmentation on the dorsal surface of the abdomen. This can make them difficult to distinguish from males. Others seem to develop less red pigmentation or none at all. Frans suggested that feeding and breeding instars may differ, with the breeding instars showing the red. This individual is a feeding instar (note green gut contents) but has a lot of red.
Note also the "white" areas on the head and lateral areas of the abdomen. I don\'t see this very often, but it is similar to a specimen that David (David_W_1971 ) photographed last year and posted a couple of days ago.
The only way to confidently identity females is to see the sub-anal appendage (SAA). This is difficult to see in photographs. I think though, that one may just be visible in the left-hand insert. Frans will confirm (or not!).
A local Staffordshire churchyard has a thriving colony of these springtails. They seem to congregate on a damp area of wall. They have only recently been reported in the UK and are designated Katiannidae genus nov.1 sp. nov..
As there has been lots of rain, I visited the churchyard this morning to check on numbers. The wall was swarming with them. I did a few shots and when processing them, noticed that there was a spermatophore on this one. I presume that it's been produced by a male of this particular species.
Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm macro (at x5) + 2x tele-extender + MT-24EX flash.