WARNING! Reading this may spark a passion to learn more about our under appreciated collembolan friends!
Preface:
I've been culturing springtails from globulars to arid entomobrya for a few years now. So I thought I would clear up some of the confusion about keeping collembola (springtails) with ants and educate about springtails themselves while I'm at it. Let me preface this thread by saying I haven't had the time to do much experimentation on cohabiting ants and springtails myself and will only be going off field observations and culturing experience and experimentation done by me.
Section 1-Basic terminology used by springtail hobbyists:
Before we begin I think going over some basic springtail terms I may use and what they mean will help to avoid confusion.
Culture = A container or vessel used to attempt to replicate the springtails environment and get a population growing. "I will attempt to culture this species" means I will try to catch a substantial number of specimens and attempt to make a suitable environment to get them to breed and produce a healthy population in my chosen container or setup.
Aspirator / Pooter = An aspirator (also known as a pooter) is a device used to suck up and collect fragile insects such as springtails.
Collembola / Collembolan = Is the class that all springtails reside in. Commonly used in place of the word springtails (example: "I found a very interesting collembolan in the woods").
Collembology = The study of collembola (springtails).
Entomobryomorpha / Entomobryid = Is a large class of collembola with morphological similarities such as an elongated body shape with a clear separation between the thorax and the first abdominal segment. Many arid species come from the entomobryid genus entomobrya.
(sexually dimorphic Entomobrya Sp. found outside on dry plastic table with many potted succulents)
Poduromorpha = The class that contains many of the cute sometimes pudgy looking springtails. Many commonly encountered collembolans such as Onlychiurids (The small white sightless collembola commonly encountered in soil in dark damp areas).
(Yuukianura aphoruroides on clay culture)
(Ceratophysella Sp. "Lilac" yellow albino form isolated by Ryne Pavy (owner of Springtails US)
Symphypleona / Globulars = The class of collembolans that contain small globular (3.5mm max) springtails. All members of the Symphypleona are usually referred to as "globulars" or "globs".
(Sminthurinus Niger-Group Sp. I have attempted to culture this species twice. The second attempt is still ongoing. Read about why attempt one failed in the "My biggest mistake ever" section)
Neelipleona = The collembola group that contains the smallest members (under 1mm). All of them are cryptic soil dwellers with no eyes and usually lack pigment. I can't photograph them as they are to small for my camera (phone with macro lens clip on).
Mesofauna = are very small invertebrate animals that are usually between .1 and 2mm.
Section 2-Why do springtails matter?:
Springtails, along with other types of soil mesofauna, are instrumental to the ecosystem. Springtails don't directly decompose organic matter, but aid in the process by fragmenting organic matter such as molds and mycelium. They also eat certain bacteria and help keep a balance of soil microbes. You will find springtails in nearly every soil environment that is thriving. From local forests to peaks of tall mountains, or even your backyard, you will find collembolans.
Section 3-How to culture springtails, from initial collection to established culture:
To start a springtail culture you need to obtain at least 15 specimens. This is because many species of springtails usually have more females than males. You could purchase a culture or small group online or you could go out and find some yourself. To begin catching springtails all you need is some clean white printer paper (or black paper in some cases), some collection containers with lightly damp paper towel in the bottom and a pooter (aspirator). Use your pooter and collect at least 15 specimens of the same species, remember more is always better. Once you collect them make sure to mark what locality they were found (at least specify the nearest town, more specific the better) and also mark the habit they were found (Rotting log, under oak leaves, in potted plant, etc) and last but not least the collectors name. This is an example of a proper label "Onychiuridae sp. Los Angeles, CA, found under rotting logs surrounded by fertile moist soil and decomposing oak leaves, Collected by John Doe". This is crucial and commonly not recorded properly. Keeping locality and habitat will make identification a lot easier for collembologists as many species only inhabit a specific habitat or location. It can also be used to differentiate different strains if the collection tag has a collector name marked.
If you accidentally collected multiple species in one collection spread them out on some white paper or black if the species is white or hard to see and use your pooter to separate them one by one.
Once you have a number of species create an enclosure. Try your best to replicate the habitat the species was found. If you found it in damp soil under decomposing leaves use some damp sterilized (to avoid contamination, microwaving for a few minutes is the simplest method) and put some leaf litter on top. If you found the species living under twigs on mostly dry soil make sure the enclosure is extra ventilated and is mostly dry except for a corner that you wet. When you first attempt a culture experiment with small quantities of a variety of foods to find out what the species prefers to eat. Some species only eat things like slime mold and you will need to culture some of the mold found near the springtails. Sometimes a common physarum mold bought from a biological supply company can work in place of the wild slime mold. These species have no use in ant keeping so unless wanted to be cultured specifically for the springtail itself they should be avoided. For all ventilation holes no matter how small always cover them with an ultra fine mesh. I'll talk about how not covering my vent holes killed off my whole collection in the next section. Some species are found on top of ponds or aquariums and may need a specific habitat similar to how they were found. These species have no value in ant keeping but are very cool.
Clay culture does not work for all springtails. But many do thrive on it. Clay culture is a blend of clay and calcium moistened into a putty then placed on the bottom of a container. This method is great because springtails can easily be tipped into an enclosure. The clay must be lightly watered by a small spray bottle to avoid the clay drying out.
Section 4-My biggest mistake ever, don't screw up like me:
It hurts to talk about this but it is important no one else makes my mistake. I used to have over 25 different springtails cultures all with proper collection data and it was going great. Then I got a culture of pseudosinella violenta. I set them up in a 6qt semi-arid style setup and they multiplied like crazy. Quickly They coated the whole bottom of the bin. But one day I started to notice them in all of my other cultures. Next thing I knew all my cultures were overrun and quickly outcompeted by the pseudosinella. It turns out one of the vent holes mesh wasn't fully glued on and they were escaping. When I feed my springtails I use a large white desk which the pseudosinella just so happened to live sitting on the left side of the desk. So whenever I opened a culture to feed them the pseudosinella that just so happened to blend into the color of the desk would get into the culture and eventually taken over. In a short few months every culture was just pseudosinella. So I gave all of them away to some friends who wanted to try them out and no longer had any cultures. I now have a few cultures I am trying out like sminthurinus Niger-Group sp. but went from 25 to 3 cultures because of one error. MESH IS IMPORTANT! Don't be like me! It's kind of funny that since I hated the pseudosinella so much I didn't even keep a culture for myself. I'll eventually try out a culture again with much more caution and double checking.
Section 5-Using springtails as a clean up crew for ants:
Finally what I assume most of you have been waiting for. The part about using them as clean up crew for ants. Good news is many species can do the job well. Let's get started.
All springtail species if successfully established with your colony will eat mold, decomposing dead workers, or leftover food the ants don't eat. If you can keeping springtails with your ants is always beneficial (besides possibly being annoying to some if they overrun the nest) and fun to experiment with.
Many arid species like members of the genus entomobrya would do great as a cleanup crew for a mostly dry outworlds as long as some substrate is present. I can see this woking out very well for ant genera like camponotus.
If you use a soil box type nest many species could work well. Semi-arid or Arid species would do well if the substrate is mostly dry. If the soil is decently moist you have a wide variety of options. Most soil dwellers like onychiuridae would probably do well.
There are some species of collembola that have been observed living symbiotically with ants in the wild such as Pseudosinella. I haven't done any experiments with any of these species as of yet but I bet you can find some information on this somewhere on this forum. I will be sure to share my experiences once I attempt some of these species in the near future (All I need is some starter cultures and a number of actual ant colonies).
Some ants may hunt the springtails so very small species like globulars could work as long as the species can tolerate the moisture in your ant setup and has some access to soil.
Sorry for the lack of exact experiment information. Many ended abruptly when I temporarily left the hobby last year and gave all my colonies of ants to my friend. I don't currently have any ant colonies but plan to get more again this year (anyone in CA want to donate some colonies? LOL).
Section 6-How do you learn more? Resources and information:
Online Resources:
https://www.chaosofd...ola-springtails
Chaos of delight is one of the best websites out there on soil mesofauna. I highly recommend taking the time to thoroughly explore this website.
Collembola.org was created by Frans Janssens, an expert on all things collembola from biology to identification. The website can be a tad complex for the average hobbyist but if you want to get serious this website is for you.
https://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
Bug Guide is a great site to identify springtails. If you have some quality photos of a collembolan, or any bug for that matter, and want to identify it, this website is for you.
Springtails US is owned by Ryne Pavy. He is passionate about springtails and sells a wide variety of collembolans with locality data. He is incredibly helpful and always happy to help. Feel free to email him if you have any questions.
Other methods to learn more:
The best way to learn more is to go out in the field, make some observations, and collect some springtails to attempt a culture. It's always lots of fun and a very interesting activity. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
