Sunshine at last

After stormy, windy and very dark days, there were some long sunny spells on monday and I came across several stirring insects during my daily wanderings. A cold queen Bombus terrestris on the windowsill, with the tiny sprightly springtail, Entomobrya sp, possibly nivalis, on a walkabout around her.
 Then I disturbed a moth in the front garden, the plume moth Amblyptilia acanthadactyla.
But the best find was a very fresh looking peacock settled on the pavement by a fence, with is pictured at the top of the post.

Entomobrya sp.

Bombus terrestris queen.

The plume moth Amblyptilia acanthadactyla

Red Ant nest

We found this Red Ant, Myrmica sp., nest under a stone. The chamber in the middle of the photo had many workers tending larvae, and what appeared to be a queen, a bit larger with darker head on the top left corner. With the ants, there were a few Cyphoderus albinus, a species of white springtail which is often found inside ants nests. There were also many millipedes, thread-like, blind, with red spots, Blaniulus guttulatus.

Blaniulus guttulatus millipede

White springtails, millipedes, red ands and a slug

A little collection of litter springtails

I have been gathering leaves from the garden and bringing them inside to look for springtails. I was enticed to give them some more attention after spending some time checking the awesome photographs of Eddy Nurcombe in Flickr. They transport you to a strange and tantalising world where everything is relative. Apparently gigantic millimetre long beasts with dark stern eyes tower over other bugs as big as a speck of dust. I wanted to have a glimpse by myself so, armed with the hand held digital microscope I set up to explore the leaf litter. Springtails are a group of hexapods - as are insects - but, unlike insects, they are primarily flightless. They still have six legs and a pair of antennae, like insects, but lack long cerci on their rear ends, like diplurans. Most springtails have a forked spring folded under their abdome, the furcula, which they can released when disturbed, and gives them their name. Despite this, some springtails are springless, and many soil living ones have lost all pigment and eyes. Surface dwelling springtails may be covered on iridescent scales, or be hairy and can be surprisingly colourful.
 Springtails are important part of soil ecosystems and feed on decomposing plants and animals, excrement, fungi, algae, and bacteria, others are predators of smaller animals. They are predated by many organisms, including small birds, spiders, harvestmen, centipedes
 There are over 250 sp of British springtails, and at first, that seems a bit discouraging as to trying to identify them. In addition, they can be minuscule! The largest UK springtails are around 6 mm, and the smallest are 0.2 mm, close to the limit of what is visible with the naked eye (especially if you are starting to be a little long sighted!). On the positive side, some of the common species are quite distinctive and with a little practice, identifying others to genus can be done, with a little help of macrophotography.

Lepidocyrtus cyaneus, an iridescent blue springtail

Tomocerus minor, another iridescent springtail.

I was trying to take some photos of one of these lovely Hypogastrura purpurescens. They look rubbery and matt, in contrast to the iridescent species...

...when this tiny spider jumped onto the field of vision and ate one of them - just visible at the front of the spider. I wished I had taken a video of that!

 The distinctive globular springtail Dicyrtomina ornata

Despite its name, this is one of the large springtail species, Tomocerus minor, here posing with a woodlouse

A relative of the Lion Springtail, the handsome Orchesella cincta

I like to call this species the Lion springtail, as it's got a wonderful mane (also top photo). Orchesella villosa. I often find in on fallen apples (top).

 Cyphoderus albinus, a springtail often found in ant nests.

Protaphorura sp. a large aggregation on a rotting plant. This is actually a springless springtail, as it does not have a furca. Also, as the previous one, it has no eyes or pigment, as they often live underground.

Entomobrya intermedia

Now I see springtails everywhere. Click to see the full resolution photo and you will notice that there are many springtails - and some bark lice - around these overwintering Harlequins.

More information
A photographic key to common UK springtails.
Collembola of Britain and Ireland. Steve Hopkin's site with distribution maps.
Checklist of the Collembola. With lots of info on springtail biology.

Peeking under stones

Every now and then I lift some stones in the garden and check what's living under them. It is not a great strategy to observe bug behaviour, as the stone-lovers tend to be light-haters and rush frantically trying to hide again. However, this month it has turned out to be a good strategy to spot species I haven't blogged about yet. A large male earwig, Forficula auricularia, with its formidable pincers. Then, I disturbed the underground nest of some garden ants, Lasius niger. Although eggs and larvae couldn't be seen - probably too superficial for that - a tiny inhabitant of ant nests could be seen, some albino springtails, Cyphoderus albinus. If you click on the photo you will probably be able to make it out towards the left of the centre of the photo, next to an ant's head. Although easy to spot due to their white colour and highly mobility, their small size - probably no more than a mm in length -  made them quite tricky to photograph.

Finally, a couple of rove beetles (or Devil's Coach Man) Ocypus nero, one of them pictured below.

In addition, I found stones literally carpeted on rough woodlice, some earthworms and plenty of slugs.

The lion springtail

Every day I go out in the garden and fetch the few apples that have fallen overnight. This springtail, Orchesella villosa, was resting on top of one today. It sat nicely for me and then jumped to pastures new.

More on little pole vaulters

After researching and writing my first post on springtails, I suddenly have become much more aware of these tiny bugs. Yesterday in the garden, I came across quite a few. Something I didn't mention is that springtails can be very colourful. Once I cropped some of my pictures - I am working on the edge of the resolution on my Powershot G10 camera - the patterns on the abdomen of this tiny, oddly shaped, and appropriately named Dicyrtomina ornata appeared as quite striking. Found when lifting the plastic lid of a sandpit.

I also came across a relative of the maned species I found in the conservatory; although hairy, this one has clear bands in the abdomen, and also banded antennae. I think it is Orchesella cincta.

The sand grains gives an idea of scale. 

Some springtails had fallen on a little puddle and died. This one shows the little 'pole' they use for jumping extended behind its abdomen. Normally, the mechanism is tucked under their body. I made one springtail jump just to see the level of control they have on where they land and the direction. They seem to jump 'forward' most of the time, but the length of the jumps varied quite a lot.

Finally, this is the tiniest springtail I've seen. Less than 2 mm in length, maybe just 1 mm. I do not know what species it is. I found it under a bonsai pot.

More information
This page has identification and distribution information on UK springtails.

Little pole vaulters

Pottering around in the conservatory the other day I noticed a large springtail walking on the floor. When I say 'large' of course, it is in relative terms as the animal was around half a centimetre long. Springtails, or Collembolans are small wingless hexapods less than 1 centimetre in length, some - one of the smallest insects- less than half a millimetre. Due to their small size they often remain unnoticed, until they jump. And jump they can: springtails can cover many times (I have read up to 20 times) their own length in a fraction of a second. Their name gives away the mechanism they use to jump. They have a prolongation of their abdomen (a forked 'tail' or furcula) which is normally folded under the insect and secured in place with a 'catch'. On being disturbed, the springtail releases the catch and the 'tail' pushes fast against the substrate, catapulting the springtail into the air away from danger.
 My conservatory springtail proved easy to identify thanks to a very exhuberant mane by WAB member Jason Green as Orchesella villosa. Going back to old photos I found one where a couple of individuals of the same species enjoy the underside of a fallen apple with some slugs and woodlice like a group of friends that have found paradise.

Many resources on springtails state that their relationships with insects is unclear, as some research showed they might be more related to crustaceans. To clarify this debate, a recent paper by Regier and collaborators, based on a phylogeny of 62 genes showed conclusively that collembolans are indeed hexapods and more closely related to insects.
More information
A very informative account on Collembollans by Steve Hopkin here.
Collembola.org by Frans Janssens.
Regier, J.C. et al. (2010) Arthropod relationships revealed by phylogenomic analysis of nuclear protein-coding sequences. Nature, 463:1079-1083. here.