The tiny little yellow globular springtails are out and dancing on the leaves! They lock antennae and twirl around and around. The smaller ones are the males and you will sometimes see multiple males trying to dance with a female. I have been trying to get a video that isn't too blurry/shaky.

Springtails are not insects; like insects they are six-legged arthropods, but they are on a separate branch of the arthropod "family tree". I always refer people to Andy Murray's Collembola page for the great up-close photos and overviews of the major groups: https://www.chaosofdelight.org/collembola-springtails

#bugstodon #arthropods #springtails #Collembola #Symphypleona

#NewSpecies!
New springtail from #china just sprang in:

Anurida huangxiei

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03CD747B-FFFE-FFEC-FF6A-9FF9FCF0175C
Publication: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5782.1.8
#Zootaxa #AnuridaHuangxiei

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #fauna #invertebrates #collembola #springtails

So Smol!
This is a globular springtail, cave adapted, in Pygmarrhopalites but don't ask for species because I have no clue! But it *is* a lot of fun to say! I'll try to spell it out for you..."pig-mawf-fah-light-ees" uhm that's about the best I got, Give it a whirl! No accuracy promises implied :P

#springtail #springtails #Soil #ecology #invertebrates #Collembola

Springtail on a snail. Springsnail

#bugstodon #springtails #Collembola

Sometimes a moth is more than it seems.

I looked twice at this moth photo I was uploading to #iNaturalist. There was an orange spot on one wing. A parasitic mite?

No! It's a globular springtail!

I'm not sure if it hitched a ride into the moth light on this moth or came in on another insect.

springtail: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341756456
moth: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341756462

#phoresy #Collembola #Springtail #entomology #NZ

Slides from my talk last night to the Field #Naturalists Association of #Canberra:

"Lessons from #Malaise trapping in Aranda"

https://codeberg.org/dhobern/presentation/src/branch/main/Lessons_from_Malaise_trapping_in_Aranda.pdf

As with most of my talks, there are few notes, but the gallery of amazing #insects may mean something to some of you.

#entomology #taxonomy #DNAbarcoding #biodiversity #OnceAndFutureKing #Hymenoptera #Lepidoptera #Strepsiptera #Hemiptera #Collembola #Araneae #wasps #moths #springtails #spiders

went to the park and flipped a log which was in icy ankle-deep slush but still yielded the usuals.

#bugstodon #insects #springtails #beetles #mites #Mitestodon #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Coleoptera #Staphylinidae #Collembola #Entomobryomorpha #Hymenoptera

#NewSpecies!
New springtail from the #caucasus just sprang in:

Ceratophysella dobrolyubovae

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038187EB-FFD6-603A-FF03-FE9AD588FC72
Publication: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5725.3.4
#Zootaxa #CeratophysellaDobrolyubovae

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #invertebrates #collembola #springtails

Dunkelbraune Kugelspringer (Allacma fusca) sind winzig, sehen aber von nahem betrachtet recht urig aus. Sie weiden Algen von Bodenoberflächen, z. B. Holz, ab.

#artenvielfalt #nature #natur #Springschwänze #Collembola #Entognatha #Hexapoda