Springtails *Adult Content, May contain Mating Rituals*

[WillyCKH]

silver springtail

 

[WillyCKH]

Yuukianura aphoruroides

 

[WillyCKH]

Two beautiful springtails I saw in 2016.

 

[Atom]

These are beautiful pictures and has made me want to take a magnifying glass to all my pots! Which springtails are the easiest for the average home grower to spot within their own pots?

 

[WillyCKH]

These are beautiful pictures and has made me want to take a magnifying glass to all my pots! Which springtails are the easiest for the average home grower to spot within their own pots?

Springtails are tiny! The largest ones I have seen are only about 1.5-2mm long.
Two things to identify them: they float on water, and they jump!

 

[Muckydoo]

These little guys have survived all winter on my windowsill eating the nectar from my VFTs.

 

[WillyCKH]

Yuukianura aphoruroides floating on water

 

[DaniL]

Yuukianura aphoruroides floating on water

These are almost ethereally beautiful. I never imagined I'd find myself attracted to microscopic bugs, but I'm kind of in love with that first image.

 

[dewy]

These little guys have survived all winter on my windowsill eating the nectar from my VFTs.

View attachment 27312

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Looks like Sminthurinus bimaculatus, or Sminthurinus quadrimaculatus f. Bimaculatus. Apparently they are different species but I’m not sure how to tell the difference.

 

[WillyCKH]

A silver springtail and a baby silver springtail (I think).

 

[WillyCKH]

silver springtail

And an overexposed reflective silver springtail baby

 

[WillyCKH]

orange springtails and baby orange springtail. Note that their babies are less orange!

 

[WillyCKH]

Looking at the orange springtails today.

 

[WillyCKH]

Woolly springtails from the balcony.

 

[WillyCKH]

I love seeing the globular springtails. Too bad I lost the aquatic ones that came with duck weed.
These ones are wild from the balcony. The baby is too cute.

 

[WillyCKH]

Silver springtails!

And a dead one floating on water...

 

[WillyCKH]

Orange springtails

 

[Trapper J]

@WillyCKH, do you keep the different types separate? would they be able to co-exist? I picked up my "culture" order of pink springtails and 12 powder blue isopods last week. Those springtails really fly! Lots of tiny babies scampering about.

 

[WillyCKH]

The orange ones and silver ones live fine together. Isopods and springtails can live together happily too.
The only concern is when you have a very prolific species like the whites, or tropical pinks, with a much slower species that the faster ones could overwhelm the others. It's a good idea to keep at least one backup culture that is separated from other species/ types.

 

[spiffyzha]

The orange ones and silver ones live fine together. Isopods and springtails can live together happily too.
The only concern is when you have a very prolific species like the whites, or tropical pinks, with a much slower species that the faster ones could overwhelm the others. It's a good idea to keep at least one backup culture that is separated from other species/ types.

Do the different colours breed together? And if so, do you have thoughts on which colors are dominant or recessive?