18.08.18 - Gaulby - Absolute Whoppers

Bit of a cock up on the navigation front resulted in a collecting trip in an unintended location - arable field margins - but still one with no previous springtail records.

Sweeping vegetation near the base (where there was most moisture) yielded abundant Entomobrya nicoleti and a few Orchesella cincta. As with the previous day, juvenile populations containing mostly immature stages:

Entomobrya nicoleti juvenile:


Orchesella cincta:



Poking around under the bark of a fallen Ash tree was also productive, giving many adult Pogonognathellus longicornis - absolute whoppers, some of the biggest I have ever seen (drought survivors):


I also found a single Entomobrya multifasciata, not a species I see very often:



Overall, quite a productive outing and once again, no globular species recorded post-drought.

17.08.18 - Priors Coppice

Finally back in the field after the drought broke. In spite of some rainfall, the ground was still very dry and I was unable to find any specimens under logs. Sweeping vegetation near the base (still damp from the morning dew) was very productive however. There were lots of Entomobryomorpha present. The majority of these turned put to be Entomobrya nivalis, with a few adults and many juveniles present:



Likewise, a number of Orchesella cincta found were also juveniles (less than 6 antennal segments):



Pogonognathellus longicornis was also quite frequent but all the specimens found were adults, and large adults at that, which had clearly survived the drought. No globular species were found, they seem to be taking longer to recover and/or moisture levels are still not high enough for them to appear.

Springtails - Drought Recovery

I've been out sampling for springtails three times since the drought broke and I have the following observations which seem to be consistent across several sites:

1. Populations are recovering within a few weeks but this hides more complex trends. And yet, the ground is still extremely dry, so I suspect that much of the recovery is due to decreased temperatures (Leicestershire had several weeks of air temperatures close to 30C) rather than increased moisture levels. Discuss.

2. Lots of Entomobryidae around on vegetation at present. For the most part, these are quite young populations with many juvelines present (not surprising).

3. Big Winner: Pogonognathellus longicornis - a large number of adults about, clearly they survived the drought. Not only that, but also the biggest specimens of this species I have ever seen.

4. Big Loosers: Symphypleona - I haven't found any globular springtails via any sampling method yet. These seem to be taking much longer to recover.

Theory Into Practice

Last weekend I was lucky enough to participate in the FSC BioLinks course "Introduction to Springtails" led by Pete Boardman, and this week I've been trying to embed a few of the things I learned by putting them into practice.

Although the drought broke at the weekend it's rapidly warming up again now, so I started by trying out Pete's "pot knocking" technique which yielded quite a few species at the weekend. This turned up several Orchesella cincta:



a couple of Tomocerus minor (confirmed by microscopy):



and a single Isotoma viridis. I also revised my photography technique to try to improve the quality of the images I am getting.

After that I had a go at sweeping the White Clover in the garden. Even though the flowers have gone over I was hoping this would turn up Sminthurus viridis, but no luck I'm afraid. What I did find were several Deuterosminthurus pallipes, mostly form repandus but also my first ever purple nominate form - which annoyingly I lost while trying to get a photo (so you'll have to take my word for it!). The other thing I found were a lot of Poduromorphs which I'm still struggling to identify - one of the Hypogastruridae I think??





Roll on the advance FSC BioLinks springtails course in January so I can get my teeth into these!