Actually, springtails can be found any time of the year, even in the winter. Have you ever heard of snow fleas? They’re not fleas at all, but springtails. You can find them just about anywhere on earth—from the slopes of Mt. Everest to the bottom of the deepest known cave, more than 1 mile (2 km) down!
Some of you might be wondering why, if they are so ubiquitous, you have never heard of them. There are probably two reasons for this. One, they require a humid environment (so forget the Sahara Desert), and secondly, they are tiny—only 1-4 mm on average, with the smallest being 0.012 mm and some “giant” ones in Australia getting up to 17 mm.
If I were to tell you that springtails have six legs, three body parts, and an exoskeleton, you would probably think they are insects. Actually, they are Collembolans. Taxonomists decided that they are different enough from insects to give them a class of their own.
Here are a few of the differences. Almost all insects have wings, while springtails never have wings. Insects have external mouthparts; springtails’ are internal. The two biggest differences, however, are that the springtails have two special structures, one called a collophore (a tube-like structure underneath the abdomen), and another called a furca (a special kind of tail).
We’ll learn more about these two structures in a bit, but first let’s look at the three main groups of springtails. Since the scientific names are hard to pronounce, I will use their common names. Their names, slender, pudgy, and globular, describe their general body shape. I think the globular ones are cute. How about you?
There are over 8000 species, with many new ones being discovered every year. They live one to two years and can sometimes be found in huge numbers—up to tens of thousands of individuals per square yard/meter.
As previously stated, the collophore is located on the ventral side of the abdomen. It has many functions—water uptake, excretion, orientation, and even a “wash cloth”!
I was taking a video of a globular springtail taking a “spit bath,” and I mean that literally! It would move its front leg over to its mouth and get a tiny drop of “soap” and use it to wash one of its antennae. It repeated this process several times.
While taking a bath, have you ever heard your mother say, “Don’t forget to wash behind your ears”? Well, the springtail is able to take that to a whole new level! At each side of the end of the collophore is an inflatable “balloon.” Because the legs of the springtail are a bit on the short side, there are places it can’t reach—like behind the antennae and on its back. These “balloons” are called vesicles. One of them will inflate until it reaches its mouth, pick up some “soap” from its mouth, and scrub away on those hard-to-reach spots.
The springtail also use the vesicles to right itself if, after jumping, it ends up on its back. The vesicle will elongate on one side and push on the ground until the springtail is upright. Isn’t God amazing! He thought of everything the springtail needed to not just survive, but to thrive.
Another structure important to the springtail is the furca, also called the furcula. It comes from a Greek word meaning “forked,” and it looks similar to the forked tongue of a snake. The furca is the springtail’s tail. It is folded under its body, so it is hard to see. There is a latch, called the retinaculum, that holds the tail in a “cocked” position. When an enemy comes along, the retinaculum releases the furca, which slaps against the ground and sends the springtail up into the air 2-3 inches (5-7 cm).
What does the springtail do when it’s in the air? Scientists used an ultra-slow motion camera to find out. They discovered that the springtail does multiple back flips all the time it’s in the air, up to a rate of as much as 374 flips per second! Since the springtail is only in the air a fraction of a second, it spins perhaps eight to ten times. The springtail could be the fastest spinning animal on earth! Springtails, being so small, fall prey to many predators such as pseudoscorpions, mites, and centipedes. But the furca helps them escape.
Some springtails have scales resembling the scales of a moth. These scales help their bodies retain water since their exoskeletons do not have a waxy coating like insect’s have.
Most springtails have eyes which are black eyespots made up of tiny bumps called ocelli. There are typically six to eight ocelli in each eyespot. Some ocelli detect light/dark and some detect polarized light.
Springtails can be found in moist soil, leaf litter, under old boards and decomposing wood, under bark that is loosened from the tree, and even in the garden under the mulch. I have found that right after a rain is a good time to look. The best way to see these tiny creatures is with a magnifying lens or a camera with a macro lens.
They eat quite a variety of things: leaves, bacteria, mold, pollen, moss, and the hyphae and spores of fungi, to name a few.
Finally, how do springtails benefit our world? They aid in the decomposition process, which improves soil fertility. They serve as food for other organisms. They are often added to terrariums and greenhouses to act as garbage collectors, cleaning up unwanted mold and other undesirable “trash.”
All of these benefits reveal a few things about their Creator. Providing springtails with all the structures they need to live shows how creative, all-powerful, and all-knowing God is. He is a God who cares, providing even the smallest of His creatures with food and a purpose.