Springtails *Adult Content, May contain Mating Rituals*

I was able to find a good number of what I think are O. villosa in my backyard! I hope I can culture them successfully.
(Sry about the bad photo quality. They may be large but only relatively speaking)
 

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dewy said:
I was able to find a good number of what I think are O. villosa in my backyard! I hope I can culture them successfully.
(Sry about the bad photo quality. They may be large but only relatively speaking)
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These look pretty good sized, good luck!!
 
Muckydoo said:
Are you going to try them on soil, charcoal or clay?
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I put them in a little terrarium with a few ventilation holes covered with a breathable fabric. I also made sure that there was plenty of leaf litter and a lichen covered stick. And they seem to love grazing on the lichen since there’s always a couple munching on it.
 

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I’ve been super interested in springtails lately. Here are some photos I took of some local springs.
Likely a Ptenothrix species, and a baby.
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Family Neanuridae. They were common under fallen leave and are delightfully chubby. I’m trying to get a culture of these going since they are probably my favourite springs.
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Orchesella villosa.
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WillyCKH said:
I'd love to trade for some when you have them cultured!
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I’d love that! This family is known to be picky eaters with specialized sucking mouthparts for slime molds but hopefully they will accept other foods. Thankfully I didn’t see any slime molds where I found them so they might not need them. So this is still pretty experimental.

Also i have tentatively identified them as Morulodes serratus.
 
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Neanura muscorum. I’m very excited to culture these.

And I identified the other Neanuridae i posted here earlier as Morulodes serratus.
 
Well I successfully got both the Wooly mammoths and the Neanura muscorum to breed!
The wooly mammoths have been pretty easy on soil as long as they have lots of ventilation. A moisture gradient, leaf litter and hides, and lichen for grazing are also very beneficial.
The Neanura muscorum get standard soil care but so far only seem to eat slime mold.
 
Any advice on baiting and transferring springtails? I have a bunch in my vermicompost bins and a couple of pots and would like to transfer a few into a newly created mossarium. At least, I’m assuming they’re springtails. They’re so tiny I can’t say for certain, but some are tiny and white, and if I squint real hard some look like the globular ones, lol.
 
DaniL said:
Any advice on baiting and transferring springtails? I have a bunch in my vermicompost bins and a couple of pots and would like to transfer a few into a newly created mossarium. At least, I’m assuming they’re springtails. They’re so tiny I can’t say for certain, but some are tiny and white, and if I squint real hard some look like the globular ones, lol.
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They love mushroom & banana peels, try putting some in there and they should climb on it. Use water to float springtails to isolate them from others.
 
@WillyCKH thanks for the mushroom slice tip! This worked well in one of my small pots. They crawled up on there enabling me to take some very blurry pics, which miraculously enabled me to tentatively ID at least some of them as a sort of entomobryidae :)
 
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