2016 September 13

   Tonight:  At Fraser  159, UVic,  7:30 pm.  Catherine Scott will talk about her observations on Latrodectus hesperus  (Ara.: Theridiidae) at Island View Beach.  This will be of great interest to all viewers of this site.

   Rosemary Jorna sends an interesting photograph from Broom Hill.  Thanks to Jeremy Gatten for identifying the snail for us.   The tiny invertebrate next to it is of interest.  Thanks to Rob Cannings who identified it as a springtail of the Family (recognized by the globular shape) Sminthuridae.  Whether springtails regularly feed on snail slime or whether the springtail randomly encountered the snail in passing will need to be resolved by further observations, although Rosemary writes that it kept going back to make contact with the snail. Rob writes: Springtails eat many things, from fungal hyphae and spores to bacteria and components of decomposing plant and animal material of all sorts. I bet they could get lots of nutritious things from snail slime.

Northwest Hesperian Snail Vespericola columbianus (Pul.: Polygyridae)

Jeremy Tatum comments.  At one time, springtails were insects – but the taxonomists have been busy since then.  We now have an Arthropod Subphylum called Hexapoda, which includes two Classes,  Insecta and Entognatha.  Springtails (Order Collembola) are now Entognatha, no longer Insecta.  Another animal that many of us are familiar with (but we wish we weren’t), which was an insect but is now an entognath, is the Firebrat (Order Thysanura, Family Lepismatidae)  that shares our homes with us. At least I think that’s what it was last year.  Who knows what the next revision will bring?