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Photo#634409
Courtship Ritual of Sminthurides weichseli - Sminthurides weichseli - male - female

Courtship Ritual of Sminthurides weichseli - Sminthurides weichseli - Male Female
Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, USA
April 23, 2012
Size: under 1mm
These female Sminthurides springtail were found crawling in the grass that was partially submerged in a small pond. Frans identified them as Sminthurides weichseli. I can't find any info about this species online, but here's what Frans said "...Sminthurides weichseli, which is characterised by a typical 'washed' blue pigment of head and body. The large blue specimens are adult females. If a Sminthurides male is 'rejected' by a female it often 'practises' its grasping on subadult females and/or other males. So in the 'mating' pics the males are exercising"

The large, dark blue ones are the adult females, the smaller light blue ones are subadult females, and the small brown/brownish-purple ones are the males.

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Courtship Ritual of Sminthurides weichseli - Sminthurides weichseli - male - female Courtship Ritual of Sminthurides weichseli - Sminthurides weichseli - male - female Courtship Ritual of Sminthurides weichseli - Sminthurides weichseli - male - female Courtship Ritual of Sminthurides weichseli - Sminthurides weichseli - male - female Courtship Ritual of Sminthurides weichseli - Sminthurides weichseli - male - female

Moved
Moved from Sminthurides.

Sminthurides weichseli
Sorry for the misspelled name...

Wrt the concept 'mating'. Collembola do not actually 'mate'. Males deposit spermdrops (spermatophores) on a substrate, that are uptaken by females. So there is no copulation. But some species have a ritual that is a kind of intro to the depositing and uptaking of the spermdrops. This ritual could be called 'courtship ritual' iso 'mating ritual'.

 
Ok. I fixed the spelling of t
Ok. I fixed the spelling of the name and changed the title.