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The Poweshiek Skipper Project | |
| Lake Hawthorne ©Rayford
Ratcliff
Introduction Information about the butterfly
O.
poweshiek, Legacy butterfly Legacy
of Chief Poweshiek
H.W. Parker's writings Von Blixum's Heroic Experiment
Iowa's
biological diversity
The Poweshiek Skipper Project Goals
of the project
|
Springtails There is a group of very small creatures that have three pairs of legs and an organ under their bodies that releases suddenly like a spring, allowing them to jump huge distances on a relative scale. This group is the springtails or collembola. Historically they have been grouped with the insects
although generally they are now not considered to be insects, and are
sometimes grouped in their own separate class. The largest of
these in Iowa may get to be about 1/8 of an inch long, but most are much
smaller. They can be seen with the naked eye but a small hand lens
makes it easier. If you look under the bark on a damp fallen log, or under the log itself you will see them. If you look at the edge of water where duckweed forms thick mats you might see them as well. They will be small black dots that occasionally jump out of view. The photo on the right is a globular springtail. In the photo below on the left, the gray thing behind the snail is a different species of springtail. Harlow B. Mills was a student at Iowa State in the 1930's and he wrote a master's thesis that latter became a book. The book (from the thesis) was: Mills, Harlow B., M.S. 1934. The Collembola of Iowa: Collegiate Press, Inc Mr. Mills listed 132 species from the state of Iowa. Dr. Kenneth Christiansen from Grinnell College is a
world recognized expert on the group. |
