Globular springtail

This is only the second time I’ve ever photographed one of these tiny globular springtails, and comparing the older photos with these to see if I thought it was the same species or not, the old ones look so bad that I’m amazed I even kept them. This probably comes down mainly to me having better equipment now, though I’d like to think that I’m a better macro photographer than I was three years ago. Technique aside though, if I’m going to start spending my time chasing round after 2mm hexapods, I’m going to need a more powerful lens.

Because I know next to nothing about springtails, I’ve spent most of the afternoon and evening reading and watching films about them. In terms of identification, I’m reasonably confident that this is one of the Dicyrtomina species; there’s a very similar, introduced species called Jordanathrix nr superba, but I’m discounting that because its eye patches are much paler, and the ocelli stand out on them more clearly than in this specimen. The three likeliest species are Dicyrtomina minuta, D. ornata, and D. saundersi, and of these, D. minuta tends to have little or no dark facial stripe, which this one does have, and D. saundersi is usually more heavily patterned than this, with the black splodge at the end of the abdomen tending to resemble a multi-barred cross. That leaves me with Dicyrtomina ornata as the likeliest candidate, though that should really have uni-coloured antennae, and here there’s a fairly distinct colour change between the second and third antennal segments. At which point I’m going to shrug my shoulders and give up the struggle – but I’ve put my entire photo sequence here, if you’d like to view them all and have a go at identifying the tiny chap yourself.

There are three seriously cool films about springtails on Youtube, which I’m finding it hard to stop watching on repeat. The first is by Peter Virag, and is a good general introduction to the anatomy and physiology of these tiny hexapods; incidentally, Peter’s Instagram account is also well worth a look. The other two films come from Ant Lab, whose slow-motion films of arthropod movement I’ve highlighted a few times now. The first of them is here, and there’s an update here. Finally, if you search ‘springtails’ on Instagram you’ll quickly find images so good they make me hesitant even to post this – but in my opinion the pick of the accounts that features them is called soilanimals.