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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.
Happy New Year to All.
On a leaf in the garden. Springtails can survive the cold so this is a subject to photograph after the insects have gone for the winter.
I had to work hard to get this picture. This one and it's friend in the picture next door were on a large plastic container. I had to lie down in a puddle with my head at a silly angle, then wait for them to hopefully come passed me.
A large individual conveniently hiding under a piece of terracotta pot that I left of for them! Frans is speculating that there may be two distinct groups; Group 1 where abd.6 in adults is pale, and Group 2 where abd.6 in adults is dark. This is a mature (~1.35 mm) Group 2 individual. The presence of a sub-anal appendage (SAA) shows it to be a female. It had been thought (not sure how this arose) that the red-backed individuals where invariably male. Definitely not the case.
[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.]
A beautifully coloured giant springtail from the Milkshake hills in the NW of Tasmania. It was such a pleasure watching these walk around, though usually in the process of trying to escape from my camera. The colours really are this bright. They live in the depths of rotten logs in Tasmania's rainforests, eating slime moulds and generally being cool.
I was wandering along the edge of a sea loch in Argyll, when I came across this little flotilla of Collembola a.k.a. Springtails (Anurida maritima) on the surface of a shallow rock pool.
I am used to seeing other species of Collembola on rotting wood and so on, but it always takes me by surprise a bit when I come across this marine species. They are fascinating to watch ... individuals seem to bounce off the main group, as though propelled by an electric charge, and then form either new groups or re-aggregate with the main group.
I found this info on-line:
"The entire body of the Collembola is covered with white hydrophobic hairs which allow the animal to stay above the surface of the water on which it spends much of its life. Aggregation is an important aspect of collembolan biology, and A. maritima has been shown to produce an aggregating pheromone. Like many intertidal animals, A. maritima moves in rhythm with the tidal cycle, and has an endogenous circatidal rhythm with a period of hours, using visual cues to orient themselves during their movements."
Wiki
This is a shot from my garden of a whole bunch of springtails (Collembola) on the surface of the water in a plant pot. They were being moved round by the wind were clambering onto this small piece of wood and on each other.
Can name some but not all of them
More leaves left out in our Staffordshire garden last night as springtail shelters. Got lots of photographs this morning.
This is interesting. The dark (ochropus) form of Sminthurinus aureus with a dark orange (fuscus) form in the background. Then what should come wandering in from the right but (what looks like) Sphaeridia pumilis. This is one of the UK's smallest globular springtails at ~0.3mm in length. It's like the Serengeti on some of these leaves!
Not a great picture, but it has rained so much that the springtails have been flushed out the soil! Not a creature I usually get to see, they are so small I usually don't stop to investigate them
We've had our first good rain for ages and ages, and the springtails are out en masse in the water bowls and droplets. There are a couple of species in here, seen best in the middle image.
Composite, not to scale. Clockwise from top:
Pogonognathellus longicornis, Dicyrtomina minuta, Orchesella cincta.
A little image dump from our stay in North Wales. The weather was almost perfect which allowed us to make the most of our trip.
A lovely springtail from an amazing woodland on the north coast of the LLyn Peninsula, Nant Gwrtheyrn.
left : Bourletiella hortensis, almost gone now for this year...
right : Entomobrya multifasciata, the whole year to find in my garden...
This one is Dicyrtomina saundersi it seems. Had other shots but a friend needed this shot of it's backside for a positive ID. On our present trajectory, these are the kinds of creatures that will inherit a wrecked but probably repairable planet from us.
This was back in the summer. Whilst pursuing an uncooperative fly, only because I was looking through the macro lens, I realised I was being watched. This tiny Springtail was peeping out from the caterpillar silk on the leaf.
Lifted up a rotten piece of wood and found at least 4 species under there! The globular ones (top left) mostly pinged off but the others barely moved! Not good shots as they're beyond my camera's abilities really, but thought I'd upload a montage anyway!
Upton Magna - Shropshire
Thanks to Frans for naming them! There's actually 5 species!
Top left = Dicyrtomina ornata + Dicyrtomina saundersi
Top right = Neanura muscorum, a springless springtail
Bottom left = Isotoma viridis
Bottom right = Pogonognathellus flavescens
About this time in 2017, I visited an orchard in a walled-garden at a local stately home. I found an unusual Sminthurinus springtail there. It's possible that it's a species new to science and it has been given the designation "Sminthurinus sp.5 Janssens & Phillips 2017".
Today I visited the same site to see if I could find it again. The ground was rather dry and I struggled to find any leaves with springtails underneath. I then found a shaded area that yielded the specimens (1-5) above. Number 6 is an example of sp.5 from last year. Note the lateral and rear pigment patches and the patch with a horizontal line on abd.5. It looks like none of the five samples I found today are the same, although they are all Sminthurinus species. I'll be going back!
I haven't "got my eye in" yet this year, but assume that 1-5 are all forms of Sminthurinus aureus.
There's an area of our Staffordshire garden where there is a population of this globular springtail - Katianna schoetti. Not often recorded in the UK (like many springtail species) and apparently, no other county records.
FransJanssens@www.collembola.org has asked if I can get shots of the underside of the small abdomen to see if it's possible to determine gender. Wonder if this image is of any use.