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Little Katiannid springtail in our Staffordshire garden this morning. I think this may be this season's first sighting of Katianna schoetti. I see a few in the garden each year.
This individual is about to "spring". They adopt a particular posture prior to springing, it "disappeared" just after I took this shot. I think it may have been "spooked" by the much larger Dicyrtomina species scuttling-by in the background. Who knows!
Back to our little, less gaudy Tasmanian critters. This was grazing on fungi. A regular winter find. Dicrytomidae
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.]
It's been cool, damp and not too breezy in the garden recently, so I've turned my attention back to springtail hunting. Here's a selection of Sminthurinus (I'm assuming) species that I've photographed over the past two weeks.
Was pleased to see S. trinotatus (bottom row, second left); only the third time I've seen it here over the last ten years.
Family outing in Fred and Jean’s garden.
Deuterosminthurus sp. springtails
This is the time of the year to see springtails. They contribute to the health of your soil.
I saw these many years ago and because they are so tiny you have to look carefully for them. I knew I has seen them on our daisy petals and was very happy to find and photograph them again this year.
Males and females have a ritual before mating where they head butt each other and I managed to photograph a pair doing this. The females are much larger than the males.
Photos Swan View 7 August 2026
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?
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.
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.
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)
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.
Composite, not to scale. Clockwise from top:
Pogonognathellus longicornis, Dicyrtomina minuta, Orchesella cincta.
Sminthurides aquaticus - In courtship the male springtail, above, the smaller of the couple, has specialized antennae to grasp the female antennae. They will stay locked in this embrace for hours with the female periodically lifting the male into the air. She did this several times as I watched them.
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.
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
left : Bourletiella hortensis, almost gone now for this year...
right : Entomobrya multifasciata, the whole year to find in my garden...
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.