Springtail

Purple Jellydisc, Ascocoryne sarcoides, with Springtail, Dicyrtomina saundersi.  Scadbury Park, 21 January 2012.

This is another shot from the Orpington Field Club trip to Scadbury Park on 21 January. I was photographing the fungus, Purple Jellydisc, the same speies that featured in my last post. At the time I didn't even notice these tiny creatures.

They are Springtails, a group of hexapods closely related to insects. Usually I see more elongated, darker Springtails, so I was quite surprised by these more globular specimens.  Springtails are extremely abundant in damp places, but are rarely noticed because they are so small. The piece of fungus is only about 2 cm across and I didn't even notice the Springtails until I was processing the photo.

There were several in the original photo, but I have cropped this so that the best one shows up well. But there are still two in the shot. Look at the near face of the right-hand blob of fungus. That one is too small for me to be sure it's the same species!