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Photo#166208
Springtail-like critters

Springtail-like critters
Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA
October 27, 2007
These extremely small critters - springtails, I think, were running around the surface of this bulb that had just been dug up for overwintering purposes. When scraping the dirt away, I noticed lots of these running around. Any ID or suggestions for these? Thanks.

Moved
Moved from Springtails and allies.

Welcome to the new order.

Entomobryomorpha

 
New genus?
We don't have a page "Entomobryomorpha". Is this a new genus for the guide? Do we need to create a new page?

 
Not an expert
But from googling it looks as though Entomobryomorpha is a name (old?/alternate?/taxon level BG doesn't show?) for something along the lines of Elongate-bodied Springtails. I'm sure I will be corrected or something, but I just wanted to slow down the creation of guide pages - just in case.

 
Arthropleona = out-dated
In current Collembola taxonomy, Arthropleona is out-dated and replaced by Poduromorpha (elongated forms with prothoracic tergite present) + Entomobryomorpha (elongated forms with prothoracic tergite absent). The two latter form a paraphyletic grouping. Therefore Arthropleona is rejected. Only monophyletic groupings are accepted as 'natural' groupings in modern cladistic taxonomy. Other groupings are artificial aasemblages and therefore rejected.
Conclusion: BugGuide is using an out-of-date taxonomy for Collembola.
For a state of the art taxonomy, feel free to visit collembola.org

 
Thanks
I appreciate the detailed explanation. I think that we should start using the updated system ASAP. I found this forum discussion http://bugguide.net/node/view/168650

 
This is another can of worms...
Indeed, also Entognatha has been rejected. In summary: Entognatha is dropped and its members, that is Protura, Diplura and Collembola have been raised to Class rank. They are now considered at the same level as Insecta. Protura, Diplura, Collembola and Insecta are grouped in Hexapoda. This view is currently widely accepted. It would be best that BugGuide adopts to this state of the taxonomy.

The discussion now is about the paraphyly of Hexapoda. But here is no consensus yet. In short, based on molecular research mainly, Insecta and Crustacea seem both paraphyletic. And Collembola seem more related to Crustacea then to Insecta... But this discussion is still ongoing.
Interested readers can find a summary to the question 'Are Collembola terrestrial Crustacea?' here:
http://www.collembola.org/publicat/crustacn.htm

Looks like
Looks like Elongate-bodied Springtails (Arthropleona)

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