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Both sexes are pretty quick on their feet, but the male especially so. They're a mass of setae, so far, the most I've seen on a male springtail, with those distinctive two dorsal lines of long setae. A beautiful little thing.
All the same species (I think), but not all the same individual. I suppose it's D. saundersi again, but these seemed to have unusually bright whitish markings on their sides, the significance of which is beyond me. Fallen leaves make for excellent backdrops, anyhow. In the Strathbrock & Kirkhill Woodlands.
Canon EOS 5D mark III, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x, Kenko extension tubes, Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT (handheld, Live View focus).
All 65+68mm, f/8, 1/200, ISO 1600 (ETTL).
My first Globular Springtail shot with the MP-E 65mm lens at x2 magnification hand-held. I actually didn't know what I was photographing because I could barely see it. It must have been no more than 2mm in length and boy could it jump!
Springtail survey I'm doing for FransJanssens@www.collembola.org to establish the size and differences between the various instars of this Katiannid springtail. Here's an interesting dark form.
- Most of abdomen darkly pigmented with no red patches;
- Anal valves (abdo. 6) pigmented, but less so than abdo. 5;
- non-pigmented dorsal stripe that does not extend for the full length of the large abdomen.
I've seen a few of these darkly-pigmented forms. All have been rather small; this individual is ~0.8 mm.
The abdominal pigment pattern (length of dorsal stripe) suggests a female, Abdo. 6 is pigmented, but this does occur in some females.
I'm assuming that all the different individuals I'm seeing are in fact colour variations of the same species (Katiannidae Genus nov.1 sp. nov.). More work needed but some definite "outliers" within the range of colour variations!
Allacma fusca?
I used my extender for this shot. It is not cropped. I love these springtails.
© 2013 Monique van Someren * all rights reserved * please do not use without permission
Another visit today to the walled-garden at Weston Park in Staffordshire; just up the road from me. I had hoped to find some of the "new" species I've found there (what Frans Janssens is provisionally calling Sminthurinus sp.5). Sadly there were none to be seen.
There were however, lots of other globular springtails and here's a selection. In addition there were good numbers of Jordanathris nr superba and typical yellow forms of Sminthurinus aureus.
1. Looks like Sminthurinus elegans in reverse, presumably just a particularly dark form;
2. A rather pale Sminthurinus elegans forma ornata;
3. I chased this around all over the place as it had an unusual colour. It wouldn't keep still and the shot's not too sharp. Presumably a darkish form of Sminthurinus aureus;
4. Sminthurinus elegans;
5. Sphaeridia pumilis - a female by the look of it;
6. Sminthurinus aureus forma reticulata.
Canon 5D Mk III + MP-E lens (at 5x magnification) + 1.4x tele-extender + 25mm extension tube + YN24EX flash. All images heavily cropped. All individuals ~0.5 - 0.6 mm except 5. which was ~0.3mm.
Springtails like compost piles, and they like the insides egg shells even more. They been having lots of fun every night for days.
This shows the basal part of the furcula pretty well- (the mechanism which they jump with)... and a springtail arse. Thanks Frans.
Springtail doing a hire wire act in the same filter brush I took the raindrop photos. Think this is another male springtail !
My first pink one! Glorious! The mighty pink's probably maybe guessing ish Hypogastruridae...? Thanks Sym. P. le and the wee one maybe possibly who knows, a juvenile Isotomidae...? Thanks Eddie!
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.
Globular springtail on water barrel lid. Focus stacked using zerene. You can see 2 spermatophores in the shot
Thanks very much to Frans for the ID :)
First confirmed photo of this species from the UK!
Taken at about 900m in the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland
I just can't wait for my daily trip to the local churchyard at the moment; I'm finding something new every day!
Recently, I've been seeing some Sminthurinus elegans f. ornata springtails, this is a form that lacks a mid-dorsal pigment stripe. Today I found the "classic" form with the stripe very prominent. First time I've seen this one.
Sminthurinus springtails are present in good numbers at the moment and are giving me lots of fun (and challenges) to photograph. This one was particularly small (0.4mm). I'm still experimenting with my camera setup and used F5.6 to try to reduce diffraction effects for this shot. I've recently been using F7.1. Even with such narrow DoF, it worked OK here because of the springtail's "pose". It has given a quite sharp image.
I was up at King Alfred's tower today, at the top of Stourhead gardens and in the woods I found this chap. Very stunning looking with the long setae, with all the associated leaf-sticking problems that come along with such ostentatiousness!