Help me ID this pest

[nightsky]

Ok, looks like another phase in the never ending pest wars for me. It never ends - as soon as I think I've got the upper hand, I find a new bug. I just finished an epic battle with mites that lasted several months. Thought I'd enjoy a break, but nope. Today I see tons of these little things crawling around. Not actually on my plants, but in the basins below where my runoff goes and where I have some LFS for humidity. Like I said - tons of these things!

At first glance, I thought they were yet more more mites. To the naked eye I couldn't discern even the legs. The biggest looked like the period at the end of this sentence. But, I got a couple macro shots and zoomed in, and this is what it revealed:

I haven't seen this pest before. I'm guessing it's an aphid of some sort, but want some second opinions. So what do you think it is?

 

[Jimmy]

They look like springtails. They are harmless little insects that eat decomposing organic material.

 

[Not a Number]

Springtails:

http://www.collembola.org/taxa/sphyinae.htm

 

[nightsky]

Thank you for the fast response. Springtails... don't know anything bout them. Time to check out that link and do some research. So many of the little buggers in there!

 

[Capensis]

Harmless, they eat the nasty stuff out of your soil.

 

[nightsky]

Tonight I went in to dial up the humidifier in the growrack for the night, and noticed these critters all over my singalana. I was in there an hour earlier to check the temps and didn't notice them, so I'm not sure what made them come up. In my first post, I had said that I've only seen them in my water collecting trays below the plants, which I have some sphagnum in.

So, here are the pics from tonight. They are the same critters as in the first post - springtails - they do like to jump- but what are they doing? Are we sure they aren't harmful? They weren't moving much. They'd move a little, then just stop for a couple minutes, then move a little again. First time I've seen them up on the neps.

 

[Grey Moss]

Maby they are eating the nectar produced on the plant.

 

[SirKristoff]

nectar produced by the plant, or bits of dirty and debris that get knocked up onto the plant when you water or mist them

 

[RL7836]

Interesting. Your springtails are different from those I've seen in my collection and others. I would have debated that they are not springtails but the link would quickly prove me wrong. Mine are less bulbous - aka - more torpedo-shaped. They also appear to to be smaller than yours (but that might not be true)... Fast little buggers & hard to photograph ... Good to know about the variability so I won't freak out if I start to see other versions wandering around.

Here's an old pic ...

 

[Not a Number]

So, here are the pics from tonight. They are the same critters as in the first post - springtails - they do like to jump- but what are they doing? Are we sure they aren't harmful? They weren't moving much. They'd move a little, then just stop for a couple minutes, then move a little again. First time I've seen them up on the neps.

Unless your plants are dead, made of poop, bacteria or fungi I don't think you have much to worry about:

"Collembola are polyphagous, in general; some species are saprophagous (decomposed plants), coprophagous (excrements), necrophagous (cadavers), mycetophagous (fungi), bacteriophagous (soil micro-organisms) (Thibaud, 1970:103) or pollinophagous (pollen). Some are predacious. In Sinella coeca and Sinella pouadensis, the adults eat their own eggs, even when there is enough food supply (Thibaud, 1970:132)"

"Ecology: Collembola are soil and litter dwelling, preferring wet or damp surroundings. Collembolans inhabit soil and leaf litter, although some species move actively over the surfaces of bark and flowers in daylight. They may be found in moss, under stones, in caves, in ant and termite nests but also in the intertidal zone on the coast, on the surfaces of lakes and ponds or snow fields of gletjers. Collembolans are major components of terrestrial ecosystems (and particularly significant members of the soil communities), constituting a significant proportion of the animal biomass and are thus frequently and easily found. In forest soils they can reach densities of 200 to 1800 individuals per dm3, densities only surpassed by the acarian soil population (Handschin, 1955). "

http://www.geocities.com/fransjanssens/index.html

 

[nightsky]

Ok. Thanks guys. Just got a little worried when I saw them grazing on the neps!

 

[DavyJones]

Yeah, I've got the long torpedo shaped ones. At first I was a bit nervous, but when you go to squish them and they jump away, you can guess they are springtails. I had the same issue back when I used to keep hermit crabs...