It is strange how I can look at things all my life and not see them. Then one day, I learn how to "see", and a new thing appears that is all around. The current new thing in my awareness is springtails. To some, springtails may be old friends and I do not blame you if you wonder where I have been all my life not to have been aware of them before.
Last full moon, a friend looked at the shitake mushrooms on a stump out back and asked what was the black stuff coating some of the mushrooms. The next morning I looked at the "gritty dust" and saw that the little black dots would occasionally jump. A light went on, and I realized that these dots were "springtails," tiny arthropods that I had read about recently in a great book, "Teaming with Microbes". Springtails eat fungus, but usually they are in the soil, often in great number. Their presence is an indication that the soil is healthy. I had recently disturbed both the soil and the stump when I cut down two alders that, by their pronounced lean, were threatening the woodshed that I was about to rebuild after the dilapidated old one had been damaged by another alder.
Then, seemingly unrelated, a purple scum started to form on my pond. I thought maybe it was weathered oil, possibly from the nearby parking area and road, but that did not seem quite right. A week or so later, I saw some of the scum on a puddle on the berm on the south side of the pond, where it could not have come from a car. I gathered some in my hand to smell it for oil, and saw that it was alive, made of little dots, and sometimes the dots jumped--springtails!
Last full moon, a friend looked at the shitake mushrooms on a stump out back and asked what was the black stuff coating some of the mushrooms. The next morning I looked at the "gritty dust" and saw that the little black dots would occasionally jump. A light went on, and I realized that these dots were "springtails," tiny arthropods that I had read about recently in a great book, "Teaming with Microbes". Springtails eat fungus, but usually they are in the soil, often in great number. Their presence is an indication that the soil is healthy. I had recently disturbed both the soil and the stump when I cut down two alders that, by their pronounced lean, were threatening the woodshed that I was about to rebuild after the dilapidated old one had been damaged by another alder.
Then, seemingly unrelated, a purple scum started to form on my pond. I thought maybe it was weathered oil, possibly from the nearby parking area and road, but that did not seem quite right. A week or so later, I saw some of the scum on a puddle on the berm on the south side of the pond, where it could not have come from a car. I gathered some in my hand to smell it for oil, and saw that it was alive, made of little dots, and sometimes the dots jumped--springtails!
Black dots on water Today I got a bucket of pond water, gathered some of the dots from the surface into a small ashtray, and looked at them under my binocular microscope. Sure enough, springtails. I had never tried photographing through that scope before, but after removing one of the eye relief pieces and holding the camera to the barrel, I got a photo. Digital cameras are amazingly versatile: you know within seconds of your photo came out.
I know I had seen springtails before; I had seen jumping black dots, but my unenlightened mind said "some type of flea" and the light went out. Now that I know that the odd thing I am looking at may be "springtails" my understanding will be clearer. I hear and read that they sometimes appear on snow. The snow ones apparently are a larger species and can be quite clear to the naked eye. One neighbor says he sees stuff like this on water around his place every winter, but he thought they were spores. I told him to pick up a handful and see if they jumped.
The springtails I have currently been seeing live mainly in the soil, eating leaf and soil detritus, especially the fungal parts. The taxonomy of springtails is confusing and changing, but I am pretty sure there are thousands of species of various sizes and shapes. They are not insects because insects have external mouth parts and these critters have internal mouths. They are harmless to humans and really quite interesting. And as I said previously, they are a sign of a good soil web. I read that a cubic meter of topsoil commonly contains a 100,000 of them. I imagine there were many millions of them on the pond. There is ice on the pond now. It will be interesting to see if their numbers decrease because of the freeze. The web of life is far more interesting when I recognize what I am looking at. When I do, I see more, everything makes more sense, and it all gets even more interesting.
The springtails I have currently been seeing live mainly in the soil, eating leaf and soil detritus, especially the fungal parts. The taxonomy of springtails is confusing and changing, but I am pretty sure there are thousands of species of various sizes and shapes. They are not insects because insects have external mouth parts and these critters have internal mouths. They are harmless to humans and really quite interesting. And as I said previously, they are a sign of a good soil web. I read that a cubic meter of topsoil commonly contains a 100,000 of them. I imagine there were many millions of them on the pond. There is ice on the pond now. It will be interesting to see if their numbers decrease because of the freeze. The web of life is far more interesting when I recognize what I am looking at. When I do, I see more, everything makes more sense, and it all gets even more interesting.
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