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Photo#2063396
Unidentified Symphypleona sp. - Ptenothrix maculosa

Unidentified Symphypleona sp. - Ptenothrix maculosa
Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, USA
October 27, 2021
Size: ~2mm

Images of this individual: tag all
Unidentified Symphypleona sp. - Ptenothrix maculosa Unidentified Symphypleona sp. - Ptenothrix maculosa Unidentified Symphypleona sp. - Ptenothrix maculosa

Diagnostic characteristics?
Thank you, Frans! What particular morphological features led you to id it as P. maculosa ssp. olympia? I was originally thinking it was probably Dicyrtomina ornata, but haven't been able to find many resources for taxonomic identification based on morphological characteristics. I'm doing a research project on this particular specimen, so if you know of any other resources and would be willing to share them that would be amazing!

 
Pattern matching
With such habitus pictures it is not possible to use diagnostic morphological characters given they are not visible in the pictures. So forget about literature refs. I use pattern matching as technique in which I compare 100s of other images with yours.
P. maculosa is a very variable species. The pattern is quite different during ontogenetic development, but also there are regional differences in populations. At collembola.org you can get an idea about the variability in this species.
But given you have the specimen, we could look for morphological diagnostics.
The distinctly short ant.4 is a diagnostic feature of Dicyrtomidae.
Then we have to establish the subfamily. There are several ways to do that. We will check them one by one, if required.
To begin with, we need to see the unpaired midfacial setae. In frontal aspect and in lateral aspect. So we need a facial shot in which the midfacial setae are in focus. And we need a lateral shot of the head in which the midfacial setae are in focus (best on a dark background so the setae will stand out clearly).
If that succeeds then we can continue with the next level. Otherwise we will have to look for other subfamily diagnostics.

Moved

Ptenothrix maculosa ssp. olympia
Exellent shot, Bryce!

Moved to Collembola for expert attention
Moved from ID Request.

Frans, our springtail expert, will take the ID further.

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