Collembola Photos

Collembola, also known as Springtails, are fascinating creatures that live in virtually every habitat in the world -- including glaciers.  The photos here include are limited to those we have photographed from glacier collections.   To learn more about Collembola in general, visit the Collembola website. 

Above:  Agrenia, new species, from North Cascades glaciers of Washington State.

Below:  Isotoma, new species, with an Agrenia bottom left, both from North Cascades glaciers (these from Easton Glacier on Mt. Baker, Washington.).  The Isotoma is known as the "Behemoth," overshadowing the other Collembola on the glaciers -- The Behemoths are about the size of a dog flea. 

To get a handle on the size of these glacier Collembola, compare the photo above and below.  The huge guy in the photo above -- the Behemoth -- is so called because he overshadows the rest with his bulk, about the size of a dog flea.  The black guy in the photo above, and the one in the photo below are very close to the same size.  The small guy in the bottom photo is about as small as they get (that you can see with your plain old eyeball, anyway) -- about the size of a pinhead.

And some more cool Collembola photos:

And my favorite, the Collembola Nebula: