I think this may be Bourletiella arvalis... ? Edit. Maybe not!

Slight crop of a 5:1 photo. This was a very tiring ten minutes of following the little critter with the camera and trying not to breathe. This one was around 0.5mm big at the most, scampering about on a plastic seed tray in the greenhouse. It was raining! Interestingly, these springtails have two colour forms. This one, 'repandus' and a purple one. They breed true, so the colours don't mix.

Springtail survey I'm doing for FransJanssens@www.collembola.org to establish the size and differences between the various instars of this Katiannid springtail. These smaller ones are not so easy (this one just over 0.8mm).

Up until recently, I would probably have been confident in calling this a male (because of the red back). Now I'm full of uncertainty!

- Diffuse red colouration along length of dorsum - often seen in males;

- Abdominal segment 5 partly pigmented and abdo. 6 non-pigmented - typical of females;

- Non-pigmented dorsal stripe over anterior part of dorsum (apparently). This might be a female feature. Not really clear though in these images.

Springtail (Dicyrtomidae)

Ticini river regional park, Lombardy, Italy

Thanks Eddie and Frans for the ID...

I went back today and found the adult form of the one I found yesterday and how cool it is!! Now that's a handsome chap. Still the same problem of getting enough light in as it was 1cm down in the leaf litter. Shot uncropped at 9:1 so it's pretty big, about the same size as S. aureus.

This springtail on the surface of some water looks like it was sinking

springtail taken at 2:1 and cropped (about 1.5mm long).

Almost seem to have an inner light- nice fluffy tail :)

Pogonognathellus longicornis, I think

One of my favourite globular springtails on a water barrel lid

Springtail/Entomobryidae-Taiwan

I'm guessing this is a baby as it looks a bit underdeveloped! It's funny though, no matter how tiny or how big springtails seem to be, they all move in the same way. It makes them quite distinctive to spot by eye.

Herd of globular springtails on a water barrel lid - taken at 5:1

Dicyrtomina ornata

Springtail on a fence X4. Focus stacked using zerene

More from my garden colony of the "novel" globular springtail (Katiannidae Genus nov.1 sp. nov.). I've been photographing and measuring this species for FransJanssens@www.collembola.org and although I'm only finding a few a day, most days provide me with an interesting individual.

Here's a mature female (feeding instar). I didn't get a suitable shot to provide an accurate measurement, but reckon this is ~1.3 mm. Lots of black abdominal pigmentation (apart from terminal segment) and speckled pigmentation on head with a few, small orange patches. No orange/red patches on abdomen though.

Canon MP-E65mm Macro (at 5x) + 1.4x tele-extender + 25mm extension tube + diffused MT24-EX Twinlite flash. Three images blended in PSE. Cropped a bit.

These were amongst the 'Mind your own business' on the flagstones at Milton house Gardens today. That's the best name of a plant ever! The black is kind of similar ro S. reticulatus but there's no stripes... This is a strange pose, not sure what was going on!

Before the dew had dried on the grass this morning, I managed to review several dozen fallen laurel leaves at the local churchyard. The globular springtails soon disappear once conditions get too dry. I was pleased to see quite a few different Sminthurinus individuals and have picked out four for this collage. The largest is about 0.7mm and the smallest about 0.4mm.

The smallest one (top right) could be an immature Sminthurinus reticulatus. The reticulate patterning is quite marked. The others are either Sminthurinus igniceps (which does occur at this location) or dark forms of Sminthurinus aureus. That's the pleasure of springtail hunting. You never know what you are going to find, and when you do find something, you often can't decide what it is. Well I can't anyway!

Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm macro lens (at x5) + 1.4x Extender + 68mm of extension tubes + MT-24EX flash. Individual shots all cropped considerably.

Photo from Udzungwa national park, Tanzania.

Globular Springtail - Dicyrtomina saundersi

This was supposed to be a focus stack shot of condensation on fungus growing in the compost heap- didn't notice the springtail when I was taking the shots.

Focus stacked with zerene stacker

Globular springtail on a water barrel. Focus stacked using zerene

Again in Goatschurch Cavern, N. murinus was everywhere I looked. A brilliant little animal. The strange colour is the flash reflecting on the shiny wet stone of the cave. Still getting used to how the flash misbehaves in this environment.

This very tiny thingy I later discovered to be a Springtail. Hope that's correct Eddie?

Springtails on a clay pot. Sminthurinus domesticus

Part of a sample collected from All Stretton, Shropshire

13 March 2016

globular springtail on the greenhouse glass with an orange bottle top placed behind it

National Trusts Nature Reserve at Woodwalton Fen, which is a part of The Great Fen, Huntingdon, UK.

Springtails - Found on a damp, fungus filled bridge over a stream at Snipedales. Quite a while since I have photographed these tiny creatures.

A springtail with no spring.Kalaphorura burmeisteri. They are also blind- adapted for living in dark confined spaces

Globular springtail on fence rail, Focus stacked using zerene

First photo this year of this wonderful species.

Globular springtail - biggest I've seen this season so far at 2.1mm body length. Sitting on a greenhouse roof strut. Focus stacked using zerene stacker

Been out this morning first time in a while, and these little springtails where nice and slow because of the frost, I have a video which I can't get to upload to Flickr for some reason, so I have posted it on vimeo here is the link vimeo.com/82513060

I shot the photos with a MP-E65 Fitted with a EF 2X Extender and the MT-24 Twin flash fitted with my custom diffusers,

Again, having been at x12 magnification for a while, I'm playing with x17, working out the best f stop and stuff. It's tricky as there's not many people working at this extreme magnification that I can ask! There's extremely thick setae between the ocelli I've never noticed before on juvenile springtails- whether that's normal for Dicyrtomina sp or specific to one sort I don't know- I await an Eddie/Frans opinion!

For 30 Days Wild we built a bee watering station. No bees visited it.

So we built another one - thinking maybe the bees didn't like the colour of the first one. Still no bees.

Today is very, very hot and I happened to notice this tiny yellow spot in the second watering station - it's nearer to the ground and under a bush. I assume the springtail got there by accident.

I took its picture and put it back into the garden.

A few springtails on the compost bin lip

Globular springtail on a water surface

Shot at Whixall mosss shropshire mpe-65 x 5 magnification

Springtail Sminthurinus domesticus on a water barrel. Merged shots of the same springtail. About 0.9mm body length

I'm not sure what these mouth structures are called. If I understand correctly, collembola do not have external mouth parts so these would be other soft tissue or setae.

Shot at 3.7:1 105EX +65mm ext rings+reversed 50mm and slightly cropped.

Interesting design on it's back as it turns around (see sequence)

Collemboles, springtails

Globular springtails on greenhouse strut - natural light. Focus stacked using zerene