Commercial compost Entomobrya sp - Entomobrya confusa

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Springtails and allies (Collembola) » Elongate-bodied Springtails (Entomobryomorpha) » Entomobryoidea » Slender Springtails (Entomobryidae) » Entomobryinae » Entomobrya » Entomobrya confusa

Photo#2218972

Copyright © 2023 Ryne Pavy

Commercial compost Entomobrya sp - Entomobrya confusa

LaSalle County, Illinois, USA

Isolated and cultured from commercially purchased compost.

Attempting to key them out, here is my progress so far:
Couplet 1. Retractile bulb present
Couplet 2. abd 4 dorsum type 5 setae “otherwise formed” (not leaf shaped)
Couplet 3. Head at most only slightly longer than broad
Couplet 8. I could not locate/observe the ant. 3 apical sense organ so I compared my specimens to the description of E. troglodytes n. sp. and determined that they do not match with mine and moved on
Couplet 9. I am truly stumped. I can’t locate the genital plates (is it hidden by the furca?) and I’m not sure if I’ll be capable of properly observing the setae of the male genital plate even if I do locate it;)

Frans, any pointers for me? Would clearing the specimens help? Do I have a chance of keying these out myself? Thank you very much for your time and help :)

(I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post the key as a photo but I thought it’d make an easy reference point for discussion)

Images of this individual: tag all

Commercial compost Entomobrya sp - Entomobrya confusa

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Contributed by Ryne Pavy on 14 February, 2023 - 9:34pm
Last updated 19 February, 2023 - 11:43am

Moved

Moved from Springtails and allies.

… Ryne Pavy, 19 February, 2023 - 11:43am

Please see my comment...

...regarding copyright under image 10 in this series.

Thanks.

EDIT (2/17). Contributor reports that they did not have permission to use the images in question, so they have been removed.

… Ken Wolgemuth, 15 February, 2023 - 7:44pm

The description and illustration of the mucros

of E. confusa and E. griseoolivata are distinctly different. I can confidently say that the mucro of my specimens exactly matches the description of E. griseoolivata described on page 468 of the linked paper and the illustration on plate 4.

In E. griseoolivata the apical tooth of the mucro is “strikingly longer than the anteapical tooth (two to three times as long)”

In E. confusa: “Mucro with anteapical tooth subequal to slightly smaller than apical tooth”

Also, the description of their heads backs up my ID. E. confusa is meant to be “broadly oval in shape, slightly longer than broad.” E. griseoolivata’s head is meant to be roughly circular in dorsal view.

I wish that I could further confirm by examining the rest of the described characteristics but it seems to be beyond my current skill/equipment capabilities.

Frans, is this enough to grant my springtails a species ID? Thanks for reading my long and drawn out comments by the way ;)

[P.S. I added images of Plate 4 (E. griseoolivata) and Plate 12 (E. confusa)]

… Ryne Pavy, 15 February, 2023 - 6:05pm

Well, there weren’t very many to go through…

… and I got it between E. griseoolivata and E. confusa based on descriptions of color/pattern. Thoughts?

… Ryne Pavy, 15 February, 2023 - 12:26am

Next go check the descriptions

of the 2 species and see if all other features also match.

The genital plate is only visible in a ventral shot and the furca should be folded underneath the body otherwise the genital plate is hidden by the furca.

Make sure to provide the ref of the paper you used for the key shots. In this case also provide the link to the BHL.

… Frans Janssens, 15 February, 2023 - 9:41am

Here is a link to the paper:

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2793767#page/539/mode/1up

It is an amazing text, very well thought out. I wish that the rest of Christiansen’s work was available online ;)

Anyways, I’ll go over the descriptions tonight and hopefully have some success along the way :)

… Ryne Pavy, 15 February, 2023 - 10:06am

Pls

make the link clickable : add the square bracket open +"url"+square bracket closed + square bracket open +"/url"+square bracket closed tags.
Work is in progress to make the work of Christiansen & Bellinger 1998 available online. We expect this to happen this year.

… Frans Janssens, 15 February, 2023 - 10:16am

… Ryne Pavy, 15 February, 2023 - 10:33am

[url]https://www.biodiversity

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2793767#page/539/mode/1up

This year?? That is so exciting!! I can’t wait :D

… Ryne Pavy, 15 February, 2023 - 10:33am

To confirm E. griseoolivata

we need lateral shots of the 3 feet : forefoot, midfoot, hindfoot. Make sure the 'edges' of the claws are in focus so we can see any small teeth at the edges.

… Frans Janssens, 16 February, 2023 - 10:25am

I added 5 images of the foref

I added 5 images of the forefoot, 3 of the midfoot, and 5 of the hindfoot. I apologize for the quantity of images, I think I need to learn a new skill to better get these tiny details into focus ;) I’m not even sure if the details you are looking for are present but I’m open to trying some more if you need :) Thank you!!

… Ryne Pavy, 19 February, 2023 - 2:12am

Entomobrya confusa

Indeed the pic quality is not that good but sufficient to see what is needed.
The feet of confusa seem to match best : the unguis has
2 inner teeth
1 lateral tooth (hard to see)
1 outer tooth
E. griseoolivata can be excluded given that unguis has :
1 inner tooth
1 lateral tooth
1 outer tooth

… Frans Janssens, 19 February, 2023 - 10:02am

Thank you Frans :)

confusa is a good name for them! Hahaha

… Ryne Pavy, 19 February, 2023 - 11:42am

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