Springtail stack of 4 photos, at 2.7 Mag 1.5 mm body size from Keston Common

springtails grazing on slug slime

Globular springtail

Springtails on clay pot

I think this little fella is a Springtail - found at Chambers Farm Woods.

A springtail bundle on the top of my compost heap

I was lucky to find three different varieties of globular springtail on the same leaf. All were in the range 0.5mm - 0.6mm. I think that they are all in the genus Sminthurinus. The genus contains recognised species, some colour variants of species and others that seem to fall somewhere in between! A bit of a minefield for the uninitiated (like me).

The experts will help me, but these could be:

1. A colour variant of Sminthurinus aureus or perhaps Sminthurinus igniceps (dark body, pale head)?;

2. Sminthurinus elegans f. ornata - lateral longitudinal pigment bands, but with no mid-dorsal stripe;

3. A dark form of Sminthurinus aureus (the wide, green dorsal band is the gut contents), but not as darkly marked as the Sminthurinus reticulatus form.

All with Canon MP-E 65mm (at x5) + 1.4x Extender + MT24-EX Flash. Combined and cropped.

Herd of globular springtails on a water barrel lid - taken at 3:1

Globular Springtail taken at 5:1 with an MPE-65 on my 40D body

Taken at x5 life size.

Dicyrtomina cf. ornata

Several of them had grit stuck to their backs like this. They seemed to be coming out from a crack where the concrete patio meets my doorsill, so that's probably where they picked up those little bits. I like how this one's antennae are making a line.

Thanks to Frans for ID :)

About 4mm on a felled Sycamore tree in deciduous woodland in Jersey

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

Thanks to Frans Janssens for ID.

Dicyrtomina cf. ornata

The smallest springtail I have seen found it looking down a 1280x microscope in a drop of water from a leaf.

Superdomain: Neomura

Domain: Eukaryota

(unranked): Opisthokonta

(unranked) Holozoa

(unranked) Filozoa

Kingdom: Animalia

Subkingdom: Eumetazoa

Superphylum: Ecdysozoa

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Hexapoda

Class: Entognatha

Subclass: Collembola

Order: Entomobryomorpha

Globular springtail on water barrel lid

Springtail wandering around on a glass slide - same springtail as www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/3055007547/

Inline oil filter near mouth piece to filter particles. Can be disassembled for cleaning!

Globular springtail (Dicyrtomina sp.?) and leafhopper (Eupteryx florida?) on the surface of a bird-bath

Thanks to Frans for confirming id. On a threatened site in Strathspey, Scotland.

Springtails on water barrel lid

The springtail then left me a present. See www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/2218399643/ for last shot in sequence

Globular springtail

Willowsia nigromaculata

The globular springtails of winter have given way to these on my doorstep.

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

Thanks to Frans Janssens for ID.

Globular springtail on a clay pot. Think this is Sminthurinus niger - about 0.7mm body length

Pogonognathellus dubius sensu lato. Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC, USA.

Yes they are still on the white wildflowers!

I don't recollect seeing any of these on my "patch" (the local churchyard) last year, but it the moment, they seem to be the predominant globular springtail species Perhaps with my inexperience, I was missing them previously; they are very small (around 0.5mm).

The UK literature suggests that Sminthurinus igniceps is typically restricted to hothouse environments. This is in a chilly churchyard. Frans Janssens' criteria for this species include the head being paler than the body and the 5th abdominal segment (final segment before the "small abdomen") being fused with the "large abdomen" dorsally but not ventrally. These seem to fit those criteria nicely (if I'm recognising the 5th abdominal segment correctly!).

I've been increasing magnification of the MP-E 65mm macro lens recently, by adding a 1.4x Extender. Today I tried adding 68mm of extension tubes instead, on the assumption that this would affect image-quality less. Not sure what magnification I'm getting with this setup, but would assume around x8. Seems to work quite well. I does produce some serious vignetting, but this can be cropped out.

Canon 5D3 (at x5) + Kenko Extension Tubes (68mm) + MT24-EX Flash. Cropped.

Collembola, Symphypleona, Dicyrtomidae, identified by Frans Janssens as Dicyrtomina saundersi.

See here for next shot of this one.

Found under lid of a water-butt, St. Albans 21.11.2007.

This small spider was terrorising the springtails in my favourite spot. Shot at 2:1 and cropped- focus stacked from 3 shots. Spider body length about 3.5mm

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Springtail bum for ID puposes

Globular springtail on a water barrel - few of these about yesterday

Globular springtail - Sminthurus viridis - in a lawn daisy. Taken at 5:1

Nikon D90 + Tamron 90mm macro f:2.8 + SB900 strobe

A herd of grazing Collembola about 2mm long.

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

Thanks to Frans Janssens for ID.