A Chaos of Delight

Neelipleona

 
 
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Neelipleona

 

The Neelipleona contain the smallest species out of all the springtails, apart from, perhaps, Mackenziella, as well as containing only around 45 species in six genera. They are all cryptic, lacking pigment or eyes. 
All the Neelidae have an unusual head down against the wind manner, with truncated antennae though long enough still to have contact with the soil surface. Hopkin famously once referred to Megalothorax minimus as 'a tiny old man hunched in a baggy coat'. It's an apt a description as any. 
 

 

Neelus murinus, cellar, East Pennard, Somerset, UK

Neelus murinus Tairua, New Zealand /May 2014

Neelus murinus Launceston, Tasmania, Australia March 2014

Neelus species Mexico City, Mexico, Oct 2016


 

Neelides species are the only members of the Neelipleona that have colour- variations on a bluish-grey pigment. The undescribed Australian Neelides species in the first two photos below have the brightest blue I've seen in the genus. They are always under 1mm big, though sharing a similar body shape to Neelus.

 

Neelides sp. Westbury, Tasmania, Australia, 2014

Neelides sp. Westbury, Tasmania, Australia, 2014

Neelides minutus, East Pennard, Somerset, UK February 2015

Neelides minutus East Pennard Somerset UK Feb 2015

Neelides minutus July 2015 Annapolis, Nova Scotia, Canada

Neelides minutus July 2015 Annapolis, Nova Scotia, Canada

Neelides species, N. Queensland, Australia

Neelides species, N. Queensland, Australia

Neelides minutus East Pennard, UK 2015

Neelides minutus East Pennard, UK 2015

Neelides species, Tasmania, Australia, 2014

Neelides species, Tasmania, Australia, 2014


 

The Megalothorax genus and the few other closely related genera are the smallest in the Neelidae, no more than 0.6mm at their largest but usually much smaller. Like Neelus, they have no pigment, instead having the white and orange associated with cave and deep leaf litter/soil Collembola. On older specimens, like the Megalothorax minimus below, dorsal patterning can be seen. 

 

Megalothorax minimus Dundon, Somerset UK Jan 2014

Megalothorax minimus East Pennard Somerset UK Feb 2015

Megalothorax incertus juvenile Tairua NZ Feb 2014

Megalothorax incertus adult Tairua NZ Feb 2014

Megalothorax incertus adult Tairua NZ Feb 2014

Megalothorax minimus Compton Dundon UK 2014

Megalothorax minimus Compton Dundon UK 2014

 
Megalothorax minimus East Pennard, 21st February 2015

Megalothorax minimus East Pennard, 21st February 2015

 

Megalothorax species, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia Mar 2014

poss. Zelandothorax novaezealandiae Punakaiki, NZ May 2014

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