View allAll Photos Tagged springtail
This seems to be becoming the standard feature of my globular springtail hunts. I visit the local churchyard, carefully examine the underside of dozens of fallen leaves, and find just one individual.
Today's is another Sminthurinus reticulatus, to add to the Sminthurinus igniceps and Deuterosminthurinus pallipes that I've also found there in the past few days. I like this one's "camouflage" colouring and the bonus water droplet on the head! This is another very small individual; just over 0.5mm.
Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm (at x5) + 1.4x Extender + MT24-EX Flash. Cropped a bit.
Not a great picture, but I am very excited, as when I got home and zoomed in on this picture I discovered I had taken my first ever picture of springtails! There are seven of them I think! (I don't know if anyone can make out a more specific Springtail ID?)
The fungi is Common Jellyspot (Dacrymyces stillatus), a widespread and common fungi found on wet timber like this wooden railing. It is a small orange gelatinous saprotrophic (decomposer) jelly fungus.
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.
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.
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."
Yellow globular = Family: Bourletiellidae, likely Genus Deuterosminthurus, female
Elongate = Entomobrya assuta
(Thanks to Frans for the IDs and info!)
I didn't notice the little pale one up top till I had the image on my monitor here, so it's just happy coincidence that she happens to be in the same focal plane as my intended subject. And I was just thinking how I hadn't seen a globular springtail around my door in a while now. This girl is obviously different than those I got before, as he's pale and unmarked. I like the stripes on the elongate one.
04/22/2008
Alexandria, VA, USA
On door step