~Big Bad Red~ (by Eddie The Bugman (Collembola madness) on Flickr)

Dicyrtoma fusca

Monobella grassei (by Eddie The Bugman (Collembola madness) on Flickr)

Clover Springtail (Sminthurus viridis) On A Cowpat (by Eddie The Bugman (Collembola madness) on Flickr)

Springtail (Orchesella villosa) (by Eddie The Bugman (Collembola madness) on Flickr)

~A Sense Of Scale~ (by Eddie The Bugman (Collembola madness) on Flickr)

Globular Springtail (Dicyrtomina minuta)

rhamphotheca:

Springtails:  An Arthropod Version of Morlocks

by Jane J. Lee

In the darkest depths of terra firma, springtails, a humble class of creepy-crawlies, quietly go about their business. Researchers documenting life in the world’s deepest cave, Krubera-Voronya on the eastern side of the Black Sea, discovered four new species of springtail, including the eyeless Anurida stereoodorata (inset), which subsist on fungi and decaying organic material. The intrepid scientists monitored sections of the cave for a month, looking for life using pitfall traps baited with cheese.

Two of the species, Plutomurus ortobalaganensis (pictured above), found 1980 meters down, and Schaefferia profundissima found 1600 meters down, now hold the record for deepest living underground invertebrates, researchers report today in Terrestrial Arthropod Reviews. Their new finds bury the previous record-holder for deepest-dwelling springtail, Ongulonychiurus colpus, a Spanish cave creature found 550 meters down. And since these new species were one of the most common decomposers in Krubera-Voronya cave, they probably have no need to snatch creatures from the surface for food—as H.G. Wells’s subterranean Morlocks did in The Time Machine.

(via: Science NOW)     (Image: Rafael Jordana and Enrique Baquero)

springtail (by nikolarahme on Flickr)

Lepidocyrtus paradoxus (Collembola, Entomobryidae)

dendroica:

Springtails on acer leaf -Proisotoma minuta #2 (by Lord V on Flickr)

rhamphotheca:

A very tiny Springtail (order Collembola, family Neanuridae) on fungal hyphae

(photo: Jorge Almeida)

Globular Springtail - Sminthuridae sp. by Lukjonis on Flickr.

springtail and a mite (woooooow)

~Dicyrtomina saundersi~ by Eddie The Bugman (Formerly Wildlife on the go) on Flickr.

Erk - springtail on the lens by Lord V on Flickr.

 Dicyrtomina sp.

apodemus:

textless:

Here is a group of tiny springtails floating on the surface of a puddle.  Springtails are amazing in a lot of ways, including their sheer numbers.  But one of the coolest things about them is their skin, which repels water and other liquids.  That’s important because, unlike insects, they breathe through their skin.  So if it gets wet or gunky, they’ll suffocate.  Thanks to fatchance for sending me a link to this excellent article about it.

I love Springtails! (Collembola! Yay, I know this one! Paxon will be so proud!)  Podura aquatica? (That… I looked up.)

They are so cuuuuuuuute!

Katiannina macgillivrayi (COLLEMBOLA) from the USA