22.09.18 - A Walk In The Woods

I made a return visit to an under recorded site I last visited in April. After the rain, springtails were more abundant than previously, and I found many specimens of each of the above species, with the exception of Entomobrya albocincta (one specimen), which never seems to be very abundant. I wasn't able to find any globular species however, which was a slight surprise.

Heteromurus nitidus

A distinctive pale springtail, common in areas rich in organic matter.

Abd4 less than twice as long as abd3, body covered in roundish scales:





Antennae divided into 5 sections (ant1a/b division difficult to see), ant5 annulated; empodium 80% as long as the claw:



Single reddish-brown ocellus:

Towards a VC55 Springtail Atlas

Cann, AJ (2018) Towards a VC55 Springtail Atlas. Leicestershire Entomological Society Newsletter, 60: 1-4.

Click for larger images:

Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep little springtail

Someone recently gave me a tip - the Sparklets Corkmaster. These gizmos are no longer manufactured but they were intended to remove corks from wine bottles using CO2 from the standard 8g bulbs.



They can be picked up cheaply on sites such as eBay and are by far the most convenient devices I have ever found for insect anesthesia. Having said which, I could find nothing in the literature about using CO2 to immobilize springtails, and given that soil arthropods might be expected to be resistant to lower O2 levels, I was a bit doubtful, so I gave it a try. And it worked quite well - poot the springtail into a small pot, give them a squirt of CO2 from the Corkmaster, wait for them to have a snooze and then you have some time to take nice in vivo photos before they are fully awake and mobile again. Exactly how long seems to depend on the species. Tomocerus minor seemed to wake relatively quickly, but there was still time to take high magnification images:

You know it's autumn when...

You know it's autumn when ... Jordanathrix nr. superba reappears. I've only ever seen this species in winter, although how much of that is down to the time of year I tend to look for them is unclear, but they certainly haven't been around much over the summer (although I did find one in June). This year it would be nice to record this species somewhere else in VC55 other than my back garden! I would expect Dicyrtomina saundersi to be reappearing soon now and over the last week I've seen a couple of reports of Katianna sp nov emerging. This specimen was beaten from Ivy two metres off the ground. I've only ever seen these actually on the ground in fairly damp conditions previously so this was generally a rather interesting observation. This one is also a little weird as it has a distinct colour change on the antennae - not as sharp as in D. saundersi perhaps but not typically unicoloured as in D. ornata. Seemingly an aberrant ("infrasubspecific") individual.

07.09.18 - Return to Owston

I made a return visit to Owston to follow up the observations from June later in the season.

I started by sifting through some Beech litter and found quite a few species. Orchesella cincta was the most abundant, followed by Entomobrya nivalis and Tomocerus minor and a single Entomobrya albocincta, which I don't seem to see as frequently as other Entomobrya species:




I also collected from Horsetails and found two Dicyrtomina ornata and a single Entomobrya nivalis.

More dots on the map.

01.09.18 - Kelham Bridge - joining the dots (or not)

We went up to Kelham Bridge hoping for dragonflies but didn't see a single one, only lots of Common Blue Damselflies, which was somewhat underwhelming. While I was there I was also going to sample springtails (obviously). However, the results of this were also somewhat underwhelming. I put a fair amount of effort into sweeping vegetation and didn't find a single specimen. I found a nice puddle in a ditch and swept around the edges of that, also scooping from the water surface. Not. A. Sausage. The only place I found any springtails were on a big clump of Juncus in a ditch. (Juncus seems to be a good source at the moment). This yielded lots of Entomobrya nicoleti of varying stages of maturity, but also several Dicyrtomina minuta.

31.08.18 - Charley Field

We're trying to monitor the natural regeneration of the field between Burrow Wood and Cat Hill Wood so I try to get up there several times a year to record. I also had it in mind that there was a small pond in the corner of the field and this might be a fruitful site.

I started off with a browse through Cat Hill Wood. No fungi at all, still far too dry, but browsing the leaf litter and clumps of terrestrial moss revealed large numbers of Orchesella cincta and quite a few Entomobrya nivalis. I got excited at one point thinking that I may finally have found a Willowsia, but on closer examination it turned out to be E. nivalis.

When the novelty wore off I went over to the pond and found it almost completely dried up. Sweeping pondside vegetation (lots of Juncus) was productive, giving quite a few Pogonognathellus longicornis and several Dicyrtomina ornata. The highlight though were good numbers of Desoria tigrina, the first time I have been able to confirm this species in VC55:



I'm finding lots of Desoria of various species on waterside vegetation and particularly on emergent Juncus at present - useful until springtail numbers finally recover after the drought.

14.08.18 - The Boy Who Kicked The Hornets Nest

This one turned into an eventful outing. Although we had had some showers, the ground was still dry so we went down to Croft Pasture to go hunting along the banks of the River Soar which runs through the water meadow. After a spot of cow dodging we started in one corner of the site, sweeping emergent vegetation (mostly sedges) right down to water level. This was very productive, yielding quite a lot of Entomobrya nivalis and one Dicyrtomina minuta:



I also found a few of these, which I'm pretty sure is Desoria violacea - violet iridescence and the long setae on abd5 are about two thirds as long as abd5:



I also found this specimen, which I'm not sure about. Has to be a juvenile Desoria tigrina? No other Desoria spp. it could be - not trispinata or violacea?:






We then worked our way along the river to the other side of the site. Sweeping Water Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides) by the side of the channel I found a single Sminthurus viridis. Although I have looked for this species previously whenever I have been around clover I had never found it so it was a bit of a surprise to find it here. I looked for more but could only find a single specimen. This is a large greenish or yellowish springtail reaching 3 mm in length with the fourth antennal segment (ant4) is divided into 18 subsegments:








Since we still had some time we then walked up the road to Croft Glebe. Sweeping vegetation did not produce any springtails but there were quite a lot of Tomocerus minor in a decaying fallen tree trunk. After a short while, I realised the the hole in the end of the trunk I was poking around in was also home to a Hornet's nest, at which point I decided that this had been a good trip and in order to keep it that way, we beat a retreat.