Thread subject: Diptera.info :: First globular springtail of the season

Posted by ChrisR on 29-10-2006 10:41
#2

Looks like Dicyrtomina ornata (agg). with the 'saundersi' pattern, as identified for me a few years ago by the late, great Steve Hopkin. I was lucky enough to get a draft/test copy of Steve's FSC book "A key to the Springtails of Britain and Ireland"*, so I can at least have a crack at this horrendously difficult group! :)

I'm not sure if Steve ever published the book and I just noticed they have taken down his Collembola mapping site on the Reading University web-servers :( If you do get hold of a copy then be warned - it is very hard to make much progress unless you have a very good microscope (about 100x mag) and you are prepared to make disections and slide mounts of your springtails :D

However, saying that, I don't have such patience and so I resort to the tried and tested technique of "looking at all the pretty pictures until I find one that looks right"! ;)

* Hopkin, S.P. 2000. A key to the Springtails of Britain and Ireland., AIDGAP Test Version, Field Studies Council, p.1-242.

PS: the 'saundersi' pattern is that double comb shape on the end of the abdomen. Some people have split this into 2 distinct species but Steve said that it was probably not a seperate species - just part of ornata (agg).

Edited by ChrisR on 29-10-2006 10:49