Globular springtail - Dicyrtoma fusca. Not much around in the springtail-stakes locally at the moment, and the blustery wind blows away what there is! This was on one of my bark strips that I leave out in the garden and I brought it indoors to photograph. Two shots blended in PSE.

The collembola have entognathous mouthparts (they are withdrawn into a pouch and only extended when eating). Some mouthpart detail is visible in this individual.

Canon 1D3 + MP-E 65mm Macro (at x5) + MT24-EX Flash (-2/3 FEC). Cropped a bit.

Hopefully these IDs are sounder than my previous efforts...

Rear view of the same individual as in the next picture, showing the distinctive pattern on the abdomen.

Collembola sp. Stenacidia violacea

(+Sminthurinus elegans at minute 0.50)

After the failed? mating ritual the male is now eating the left over? from the spermatophore. You can see it shortly in the video on the ground between it's legs (minute 0.12)

Part 1 flic.kr/p/2n1JgyN

Part 2 flic.kr/p/2n1KSP1

Globular springtail on a damp greenhouse strut

I posted an image of a tiny (~0.7mm) golden springtail a couple of days ago. I was quite excited, because I thought it was a species I hadn't seen before. The "stippled" pigmentation pattern is certainly new to me in all the "small golden springtails" that I've photographed.

Frans has had a look at another image, and initially thought that it could be a juvenile Sminthurinus aureus. I have gone back the some of the other images I took though, and produced some seriously cropped versions for further consideration!

[Update: Frans Janssens and Eddie Nurcombe think this could be a Bourletiella or Deuterosminthurus species, possibly a juvenile Bourletiella arvalis or Deuterosminthurus pallipes.

I understand this is very hard to separate from anglicana, but the colour certainly suggests viridis to me...

Springtail from the allotment.

The real size is 1.1 mm, magnification is 6.72

Springtails on a clay pot. Sminthurinus domesticus

Springtails X4

AJC Springtails: Isotomurus Identification Guide

collembolla.blogspot.com/2018/04/isotomurus-identificatio...

These are photos of my untamed yard. This is my path to the wetlands lol. I need to clear it again if i want to get through there!

Taken in Battle Ground, Clark Co., WA, USA

Juvenile?

Beaten from Ivy.

Taken in Battle Ground, Clark Co., WA, USA

Thanks to Frans Janssens for ID.

Springtail on grass

Life on the millimeter scale...

Globular springtail X4. Focus stacked using zerene

Springtail on clay pot - Xenylla maritima about 1.2mm body length

I do like these big, round, shiny, knobbly, hairy springtails. When I say 'big' this one was 2.9mm long, which is pretty large for a springtail. I found it on the trunk of a birch tree during our moth night at The Ercall.

Second Dicyrtomina sp. globular springtail I've seen this season. Focus stacked using zerene

Pete Boardman, who is organising the Shropshire Springtail Atlas, calls this the finger-post springtail as this is where he usually finds them. Sure enough, that's where I found these, my first sightings of this species. They are so round & shiny that I thought they were some sort of giant mite at first. Great patterning & textures when looked at up close.

Found on a finger-post in woods near Ropewalk Meadow, Coalbrookdale.

This a new Springtail (to me that is) ...

Springtail from the allotment Collembola

The real size is 1.51 mm, magnification is 4.62

Fairly warm yesterday morning (about 9.C) and i opened up one of my compost bins to see if there was anything interesting going on. There was- all around the rim were tiny white flecks which I though was a fairly large concentration of tiny springtails feeding on the biofilm on the rim.

Focusing on them at 5:1 with the MPE-65 lens - they certainly were springtails ( Proisotoma minuta) but it looked like whatever they were feeding on was fighting back and eating them !

Think this is a slime mould which seemed to be getting the upper hand in this battle. Never seen anything quite like it!

Dark Form

Springtails on a clay pot

Short animation of the springtails just to show they were moving :) you need to view the original size here www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/5267909975/sizes/o/in/photost... to see the animation

These globular springtails loved wandering around the gills of this white mushroom.

When I took this I thought this female Dicyrtomina saundersi was just preparing to jump and deciding against it, but having revisited this image it's possible that the small 'spike' to the left is a spermatophore, and the raising of her front legs (just before this shot) was part of her collecting the package. Can anyone confirm please?

Update: Frans ID suggests a male, so potentially an old spermatophore being consumed for it's protein.

Looks much better on black

I am guessing that it's Onychiuridae after seeing Jean's recent post. Unlike the gathering in her pic, this one seemed solitary (?).

Update (thanks to Frans - see comments below):

This springtail's features compare closely with Protaphorura armata.

Damp springtail on fence rail. Focus stacked using zerene

A big springtail - Pogonognathellus flavescens. Focus stacked using zerene. About 4.4mm body length

I tried to key this ~1.5mm springtail out without success. I got as far as Entomobryomorpha and then got stuck. Help please?

Globular springtail on a sunchair. Just under 2mm body length. Quite a dark coloured one

Globular springtail on a water barrel. Turns out this one is a male. Focus stacked using zerene

Globular springtail on a fence. Focus stacked using zerene

PARTY !!

Springtail

Could this be the infamous Lucerne Flea (Sminthurus viridis)? Snug, Tasmania.

Update (thanks Frans - see comments below):

This little springtail does not have the features associated with the Lucerne Flea, namely being usually greener and with strong body macrosetae. It's features are more like those of the smaller Bourletiella arvalis, from the Bourletiellidae family, contained within the Sminthuridoidea superfamily.