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Suprised that after the freeze we just had, the bugs seemed back into their normal routines the next day. Globular springtail on a warer barrel
Well, it's my third foray into the leaf litter in the last couple of days, and yet another species/colour variation in the globular springtail world. I don't know what species this is, but I do know that I haven't seen this raspberry colouration before.
Yet again, this was the result of a 30-minute search of dozens of leaves and was the only globular springtail that I found. They really do demand a degree of perseverance! This one was about 0.7mm and as such, just visible to the naked eye.
Canon 5D3 + MP-E 65mm (at x5) + 1.4x Extender + MT24-EX Flash. Cropped a bit.
[Update: Eddie Nurcombe (Eddie the Bugman), reckons this is Deuterosminthurus pallipes. That's a new one for me!]
Pair of white blind springtails on the underside of a fallen leaf.
See www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/5267909975/sizes/o/in/photost... for a short animation
This is a springtail I rescued from our fish pond a while ago. The first time it sprang right back into the water! The 2nd time it climbed onto the leaf I quickly moved it onto a wooden stool next to the pond.
After a while it dried off and went for a walk on the stool. It was a perfect situation to take pictures, with the stool to steady the camera, and no swaying around in the breeze. So I took a series of shots.
I was surprised later when I saw the shots on the computer. This little guy was playing with water drops! He would look down, pick up a drop, play with it, drop it and find it again and play with it again.
The following 20 shots show him doing this a few times!
Quite surprising that after the ordeal he had been through he was ready for some fun!
Must ask Frans if this is normal behavior!
Crop from www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/3195533073/ showing more detail of the simple eye cluster and the irridesent scaling on these springtails
Last night showed me the largest visible population of globular springtails I've seen, all in the general vicinity of my door. I stopped counting after I reached 380. Additionally, there were at least three kinds of elongate-bodied springtails, one of which I hadn't previously seen in my yard, though I'm sure it's been there.
Conditions: 60.5° F, 16° C
The ground was damp from an earlier rain
They were all over my standing Rubbermaid cabinet and another large Rubbermaid storage container, as well as the threshhold and door molding. Then I started looking through the dry oak leaves collected near the wall and they were all over those and random bits of fallen sticks and branches.
In the pic above you can see one clinging inside the "wheel well" of the storage container, and the "butt hairs" of another just off the bottom.
Dicyrtomina minuta forma ornata
Globular springtail taken with an MPE-65 at 5:1 with a Raynox MSN-202 on the front giving around 9:1. Focus stacked using zerene
I often get asked where to find the globular springtails - one answer is on the underside of damp fallen leaves. There are 7 of them in this shot
Somethimes you find a springtail (like this Dicyrtoma fusca), that's just acting a bit funny. I've seen several the last couple of days (this and two Dicyrtomina saundersi). They seem to stagger around awkwardly, repeatedly adopt the pre-jump posture (without actually jumping) and have their mouthparts extended, even though not actively feeding.
With the Dicyrtominas, they were obviously in a pre-moult stage, with a significant detachment of cutucle from around the feet. Is their jumping ability limited when they are in this state I wonder? This Dicyrtoma isn't obviously in pre-moult, but was certainly adopting some bizarre postures! It's mouthparts were also extended in all shots apart from this one. Also, is the collophore usually bi-lobed in this species?
Dicyrtomina sp. globular springtail on a water barrel - first one I've seen this season on the water barrel