# insect ID questions, mostly springtails



## dwllama (Aug 29, 2020)

Hey everyone. I had a few questions about things I've seen crawling in my spring and iso cultures, I did my best to get some photos. In all the springtail pictures, the big white blobs are yeast granules because I cleverly just fed them right before photo time.

First of all, I'm pretty sure the bugs in the red circles are mites? (The blue circles are white temperate springtails)









Second, according to the person I bought them from, I have a culture of white temperate springtails flickr link for full size photo









and a culture of pink tropicals also flickr link 











But I thought they were supposed to have slightly different body shapes, and I almost cannot tell them apart at all, except the "pink" ones are _maybe_ a bit grayer in the middle?

They're living in a mix of ABG substrate and NEHerp2 substrate until I can get some charcoal, will have to try making a clean separation because of the mites :/ Assuming that's what they actually are. Hard to tell, they're_ so tiny._

My last mystery. This photo is cropped a lot so you can see what I was taking a photo of. The actual bug is about the size of the springtails, and they've shown up in both of my isopod cultures. I thought at first they might be baby isos, but then found a magnifying glass and discovered they don't have enough legs. Maybe a silver springtail?:











Just for fun, my blue podura  (at flickr)









and baby dwarf white iso:










and a baby costa rican purple:











I can try again on pics if needed but I'm not sure I'll get anything better than what I've got.


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

The Red circled bugs look like mites to me. 

The "White temperate" springtails and "tropical pink springtails" will look very similar 

I would venture a guess that the last unknown bug is another temperate springtail species.


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## dwllama (Aug 29, 2020)

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

Good to know about the springtails. I've seen different looking things called by various names in various places. Not really sure even what species are associated with those common names to be honest, it doesn't seem to be consistent :/ 

They do look pretty similar to what comes up when Ido an image search for "silver springtail". Is there anything to watch out for to be sure they are not harmful?


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## Harpspiel (Jan 18, 2015)

The red circled things are definitely mites, but hard to say whether they're negative or beneficial mites. I'm not sure if mites can infest frogs, but as far as plants, there are mites that feed on plants and other mites that prey on the mites that feed on plants, and they look very much alike. Maybe this and this will help.

Spider mites should be more sedentary and hang out on the undersides of leaves, and predatory mites will move around a lot. Also, keep an eye out for the types of damage caused by spider mites. Those look like the same predatory mites that I have, to me, and I haven't seen any plant damage in my tank.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

It seems very unlikely that spider mites would be hanging out in a springtail cx -- way too wet, no food source. Ditto any amphibian parasite: no frogs in there to feed on.

Likely one of those many ubiquitous mites that feed on/are associated with wood products. Future frog food.


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## dwllama (Aug 29, 2020)

Thanks! These mites are in my springtail culture, not the tank. There isn't any live plant matter so pretty sure not spider mites (they do not have spots either). In this case I'm mostly concerned about them affecting my culture.

I was more curious about the other mystery bug, trying to be sure whether they are some kind of springtail or something I should be concerned about. The mites I will hopefully take care of by following something like pumilo's method for making a clean culture.

-- I thought this posted last night but here it is hanging out as a draft. Oh, well. XD


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## Harpspiel (Jan 18, 2015)

Sorry, I missed that it was just a culture. Found some pics of soil mites that look similar, translucent with that pear shape (but there seem to be a whole lot of mites that look very similar)...


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