2021 February 17

 

   Ian Cooper cycles along the Galloping Goose trail, which is covered with hard-packed snow and ice, alone at night, and gets down his hands and knees to photograph all sorts of unfamiliar invertebrates.  Pretty risky – but he gets some interesting results.  How many of us, I wonder, have seen the animal below, or know what it is?  It’s a springtail – a group formerly in an Order Collembola, but now considered to comprise several Orders within a Subclass Collembola of the Class Entognatha.  (Not an insect.)  The one in the next two photographs (two different individuals, same species) is in the Order Entomobryomorpha.

 

Orchesella villosa (Orchesellidae)   Ian Cooper

Orchesella villosa (Entomobryomorpha – Entomobryidae)   Ian Cooper

   The globose springtails are perhaps more familiar (if they are familiar at all!), and belong to the Order  Symphypleona.  The one below is in the genus Ptenothrix, but Collembola expert Frans Janssens tells us that this one is a new, undescribed species!

 

Ptenothrix sp. nov. (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

    Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for identifying the spider below.

Pimoa altioculata (Ara.: Pimoidae)  Ian Cooper

Large Yellow Underwing Moth Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper