View allAll Photos Tagged springtail
Last summer, my friend helped me put on a new deck... well actually, he did 99 percent of it and I fetched beer. It came out beautiful, and we love it. So too does a host of tiny flea-looking creatures that turned out to be called "Springtails." Apparently, they're harmless. They come out as soon as the temperature gets above 40 or so, and especially when condensation starts forming on the "azek" boards.
On this day, it looks like a raccoon or skunk had been up on the deck. The springtails were massed around the footprints and near crumbs of whatever the critter had been munching on the deck.
Springtail duo feeding on the vertical arm of a sunchair. This shot has been hand focus stacked from 3 shots to get both in reasonable focus but think I prefer the single shot here www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/5326051611/
A big globular springtail on a clay pot. As large as I ever find them at 2.35mm body length. Focus stacked using zerene
The springtail then left me a present. See www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/2218399639/ for next shot in sequence
This was the first springtail I ever saw, before I'd ever heard of them. Lovely, has that very distinctive band of green...
Found amongst grass tussocks on high ground by Llandrindod Old Church. Apparently O. quinquefasciata is of uncertain status in the UK, with the possibility that the few records are actually just variants of O. villosa. There's at least one previous record from Wales, somewhere down by Swansea.
Frans, Heelllppppp... ;-)
...apparently it's probably just villosa after all.
Some more springtails today - from under stones around a little shelter by Llandrindod Lake. Quite productive, and only spent ten minutes there. :o)
Collembola, Symphypleona, Dicyrtomidae, Dicyrtomina saundersi.
See here for first shot in series.
St. Albans 21.11.2007.
So much variability… I’m attempting once more to culture them. Hopefully this can eventually lead to some cool discoveries! I only find Isotomurus bimus with this appearance along the shores of the Vermillion River and the streams that flow into it. Not even in the vernal pools a couple hundred feet from the river…
Op een begraafplaats stond een natuurstenen kommetje waar wat regenwater in was blijven staan. Tot mijn verbazing zag ik daar deze kleine beestjes op het water heen en weer glijden. Van kop tot staart zo'n 1,5 -2 mm. Het zijn springstaarten en waarschijnlijk de soort Dicyrtomina ornata.
On a cementary I found a small stone bowl, filled with rainwater. To my surprise I discovered these tiny critters, gliding on the waters´ surface. Head to tail approximately 1,5 - 2 mm.
They are Springtails, probably the species Dicyrtomina ornata.
Yesterday while searching for springtails I found this pair of Entomobrya atrocincta. After snapping a few photos I started to move on. All of a sudden the female (the gray one) hunched over and tucked her head under her abdomen. Then she pushed forwards and literally jumped out of her skin! She spent a few minutes working her way completely out of the old skin, then stretching her legs and antennae before finally running off.
The above photo was taken a few seconds before she started molting. There are more photos of the process below. Here's a link to a video I put together.
Springtail on a grape. A very dark Dicyrtomina. Funnily enough it's colour perfectly matched the grape skin
Out in the churchyard this morning and I took to chasing springtails around on the lychgate-post. Fun! Again, not a great pic. Just like his face...
Same springtail as the previous shot. I wondered what this springtail was doing as it didn't seem to be feeding in several shots I took of it. I suspect it may have been having sex :). There appears to be a spermatophore stalk underneath it in this shot which is missing the sperm sac head.
Focus stacked using zerene stacker
I noticed this interesting behavior by some springtails in one of the moist chambers I put together for trying to germinate wild slime molds.
The springtails are a small white isotomid that appear at first glance a bit like a Folsomia, but they don't have the combined abd4-6. And they have at least 2+2 eyes from what I've been able to see.
I had noticed these springtails there a day or two prior, and noticed that they seemed to stay in the cracks and crevices in the piece of wood. So I sprinkled a few grains of baker's yeast in the area for them.
And then tonight, when I was checking back in on them, I was surprised to find multiple pieces of lattice work near the yeast grains, and I could see the springtails moving behind the lattices.
I watched one closely for a while, and saw that it would probe at the lattice with its butt, and would eventually find an opening and stick its butt through, then extend the existing lattice by placing a fecal pellet.
They seem to construct a lattice wall, sealing off the crevice opening, near the food.
Superdomain: Neomura
Domain: Eukaryota
(unranked): Opisthokonta
(unranked) Holozoa
(unranked) Filozoa
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Eumetazoa
Clade: Bilateria
Clade: Nephrozoa
(unranked): Protostomia
Superphylum: Ecdysozoa
(unranked): Panarthropoda
(unranked): Tactopoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Entognatha
Subclass: Collembola
Order: Entomobryomorpha
Superfamily: Isotomoidea
Family: Isotomidae
Subfamily: Isotominae
Genus: Isotoma
Species: I. viridis