Springtails *Adult Content, May contain Mating Rituals*

Had an opportunity to do focus stacking on this springtail.

With 10x objective:
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20x objective:
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Hello everyone!
Great news if you like springtails. I helped Ryne (owner of Springtail US) to solve the mystery ID of the commonly distributed orange springtail species. These springtails are proliferated throughout the worldwide hobby under three names: “Bilobella braunerae” “Bilobella aurantiaca” and “Protanura sp”. Ryne has been wanting to correctly identify them since years ago. Frans (http://collembola.org/) has been very helpful and they were getting very close, but they needed one final element to confirm the ID, the eyes.

Yuukianura aphoruroides has 2+1 eyes on each side.
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Yuukianura aphoruroides is originally from SE Asia but later introduced in Europe and North America.
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Email reply from Frans
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With the two images I provided, Frans was able to confirm the ID!
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The orange springtails widely established throughout the worldwide hobby are most highly likely the Southeastern Asian species Yuukianura aphoruroides. So take note, and don't call them the wrong species name anymore!

Yes, you may still refer them as mini carrot sticks or cheetos springtails, haha!
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Very nice Willy. :) Fantastic pics and thanks for helping with ID. Thats awesome.

I got some orange springtails too on Kijiji. I tried feeding them some springtail food I got years ago...they ate it but most seem to be floating in the water at the very bottom rather than moving up the cup. Do you recommend using fish food flakes for them?
 
VarunA said:
Very nice Willy. :) Fantastic pics and thanks for helping with ID. Thats awesome.

I got some orange springtails too on Kijiji. I tried feeding them some springtail food I got years ago...they ate it but most seem to be floating in the water at the very bottom rather than moving up the cup. Do you recommend using fish food flakes for them?
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Mine love fish food flakes (plus the fungus that grows on the flakes) and spirulina powder. If they are staying at the bottom, is the humidity not very high on top? They are somewhat sensitive to humidity and would try to hide if the RH drops (when I open the container to take pictures).

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WillyCKH said:
Mine love fish food flakes (plus the fungus that grows on the flakes) and spirulina powder. If they are staying at the bottom, is the humidity not very high on top? They are somewhat sensitive to humidity and would try to hide if the RH drops (when I open the container to take pictures).
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Ok cool! It is a small transparent plastic food-safe container in which you would get condiments. It is sealed and there are no air holes in it. So I assume humidity should be high enough. I added a couple of fish flakes...will see how they take to it. Thanks :) . I need to definitely get a globular springtail culture from you some day :) . I killed off everything in my grow tent..and always loved those black globular guys with white spots on their abdomen.
 
VarunA said:
Damn! Sorry to hear. I'm sure with your skills you can probably start another batch when you have the time :)

Here are my orange ones.

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here are the most in water

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They are waterproof but make sure they have ways to climb back up! If they are trapped on water pocket they could die in a few days.
 
Thanks, Willy. I kinda tipped the container and see that they are moving around and allowed them to climb on the charcoal. However, I can't get them all out of the water. The charcoal is in the water so they should be able to climb up. I will create a new culture with horticultural charcoal and add the springtails to create a backup culture.
 
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