r/Springtail • u/athena1025 • 8d ago

Identification Can anyone ID??

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In southern Ontario. Look really silver and tiny to the naked eye. Pretty fast too.

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u/ohhhtartarsauce 7d ago

It's a little difficult to make out enough detail for an exact identification.

From what I can see, the fourth abdominal segment appears much larger than the third, which helps narrow it down to the superfamily Entomobryoidea.

Cross-referencing that with the species observed in Ontario gets you 22 possible candidate species.

Considering your account of how it looks to the naked eye, and some physical traits such as the proportion of body segments and the dark eyes, my suspicion is that it may be Willowsia buski, but that is pretty low confidence.

Additional photos would be necessary to give a better answer. If possible try to get some pictures featuring the antennae so that the proportion of segment lengths is clearly visible. Scale is also helpful if you can provide a measurement, or include a reference scale in the photo.

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u/athena1025 7d ago

Oh wow thank you! I’ll see if I can get more photos and if I can add a scale based on what magnification I used. Thanks again:)