10/8/2021: Bountiful Bylas springtails

Springtails are like teeny, tiny indigenous cockroaches that can be kept in a relatively standardized manner and come in a lovely array of colors, shapes, and textures. In addition to a season that lasts most of the year (for the motivated, just as many species can be found under snow in the dead of winter as can be found in the summer!), it’s a blast to encounter the local “flavors” unintentionally while on collecting trips.

While digging through a compost pile at a highway rest stop in Bylas, Arizona, amidst the cornucopia of desert life putting the rotting mesquite pods and other debris to good use were some good-sized springtails. The humid sections were occupied by something similar to the white ant springtail, though I haven’t give any thought to identifying these yet. The drier sections were alive with what seems to be an Entomobrya species. Considering this was early on in our trip, I collected a few without much hope they’d be alive by the time we returned. I labeled the cup as low priority, and things progressed from there.

Upon returning home and eventually checking the cup I was surprised to see many lively springtails, which is very unusual as I haven’t experienced many sizable springtails okay with that level of neglect. I set them up in my typical Collembola cup, and can now report a happy and well-established colony of the desert cuties. Identification is the next logical step when I feel patient enough to snap a pic of one of the adults, which have grown even larger in captivity thanks to a diet of dog food. Once a tentative ID is made, they’ll be added to the site as an excellent option for xeric conditions.

-Kyle