View allAll Photos Tagged springtail
Found under a Laceleaf Maple Bush on a pot. I am out of practice and I am not able to tell if this is a new one for me. I am hoping Frans or others can help me ID it so I can know if I should take better photos.
I was shooting a damselfly and when it moved I saw these egg cases so I shot them. When I downloaded my shots, I saw I had caught what appears to be a springtail. It is hard to tell at this size though. In my zoomed in shots, he must have been on the back side of the grass.
Some more springtails today - from under stones around a little shelter by Llandrindod Lake. Quite productive, and only spent ten minutes there. :o)
I forgot I had these photos! Always meant to add them here when I had some decent female photos, but they're a little tricky so I'll post up what I've got so far... They run around pretty quickly and jump far too easily, little buggers. Maybe when it's a bit cooler... It's worth bearing in mind that the larger adult female is 0.5mm while the male is only 0.35mm. The juveniles are much smaller!
This is a lovely one, found amongst the S. aquaticus, can't find it yet though... Red eye patch is kind of cool. Anyone got an idea?
I haven't had much success with the keys for this ~1mm specimen from leaf litter - this group is very new to me.
Another globular springtail from leaf-litter this morning. Again, very small (~ 0.5mm) and with a pleasant colour pattern. Not sure what to make of this one!
[Update: Frans Janssens identified as a pale form of Sminthurinus icniceps]
Canon MP-E 65mm (at x5) + 1.4x Extender + MT24-EX Flash. Cropped a bit.
I think these are all Entomobrya intermedia although I'm not quite sure about the juvenile, bottom left?
Springtails have a spring-loaded tail with a release mechanism that catapults them into the air, allowing them to "jump" like a flea. I have never seen this kind before, or this many in one place. These are large compared to your common springtail.
Here is an interesting factoid about the little buggers:
"Researchers at Queen's University (Canada) have sequenced and synthesised the anti-freeze-like protein that allows snow fleas to operate in sub-zero environments, and found it to be glycine-rich, and unlike any previously known protein. There are hopes that similar proteins may be useful for storing transplant organs and for producing better ice cream. By preventing the formation of ice crystals in tissues, organs could be stored at lower temperatures, increasing the time of their viability outside a living body. Unlike proteins with similar functions in other species, the protein found in snow fleas breaks down easily at higher temperatures."
Thanks to Frans Janssens for the ID.
Found during a night hike in Mt. Isarog national park, Philippines.
A couple month's ago I found these springtails in my pool after a heavy rain. I don't know what species any of these are, but I think most of them are the same species. Frans thinks they may be in the genus Pseudachorutes.
Springtails in compost bin. Interesting colour range which I think depends on size and whether they have just moulted. Taken at 4:1 and cropped.
I found this tiny globular springtail last week. It had just rained, and I found it under a rotting board. It was about .5mm long, translucent pink, and had distinct, almost clubbed, antennae. I don't know what species this is, but I hope it is a juvenile of the Ptenothrix-Bothriovulsus sp. that I found last year. If it is a juvenile of that species, that means that I should be able to find adults in the same area.
a rather large Allacma fusca springtail with a pronounced delta silhouette rather than the expected globular shape, found under the power lines in Flatropers Wood
We have had a decent amount of rain over the last two weeks. Enough to get a small creek running for a morning through our property. We have set up a path to the veggie patch to help keep our feet clean. A drain runs under the path. The brick is to slow the water down.
I went down in the morning to see springtails gathering on the edge of the small pool of water.
They were there the next morning too but since we haven't had much rain, there has been no more.