The Gallery.
Photos of soil animals- Collembola or springtails

An exotic collembolan, originally from Europe, common in gardens in Australia. (Long grass, Montagu, NW Tasmania, December 2015)

An incredible collembolan from Montagu, NW Tasmania. (From under fallen bark in paddocks, April, 2014)

Unknown collembolan, Tairua, New Zealand ( rotten hardwood, re-generating Kauri forest, February, 2016)

A wet tropics collembolan from Cape Tribulation, Australia (under wood, January 2016)

A wet tropics collembolan from Cape Tribulation, Australia (under wood, January 2016)

Another wet tropics collembolan from Cape Tribulation, Australia, this time with a superhero mask. (under wood, January 2016)

A common springtail on bracket fungi, Binna Burra, Lamington National Park, Queensland Australia. 

A baby Temeritas from Binna Burra, Lamington National Park Queensland, Australia. 

From Spion Kop, NW Tasmania, Australia (rainforest, under wood December 2015)

Common around Waikato area. This one was from outside Tairua NZ in regenerating Kauri bush. (under wood, February 2016)

Arse. Common around Waikato area. This one was from outside Tairua NZ in regenerating Kauri bush. (under wood, February 2016)

A very common species from North Island, New Zealand (Thames, rotten hardwood, in regenerating bush, February, 2016)

A beautiful and common collembolan from North Island, New Zealand. Like the other Novokatiannidae, they're very slow moving and quite strange looking, compared to other springtails. (Thames, under hardwood log in regenerating bush, February 2016)

A beautiful and common collembolan from North Island, New Zealand. Like the other Novokatiannidae, they're very slow moving and quite strange looking, compared to other springtails. (Thames, under hardwood log in regenerating bush, February 2016)

Another from the bush near Thames

A common collembolan in the rainforest of Australia's wet tropics. (Under wood, Cape Tribulation, Australia, January 2016)

A very large, 9mm collembolan photographed during a downpour, next to the sea. (Under wood, Punakaiki, New Zealand, June 2014)

The first recording of this species in North America, most likely an introduced exotic from Europe. (Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Canada, June 2015)

The first recording in North America, probably an exotic. Very heat tolerant, they were found on and near weed suppressing black plastic in the full heat of a Nova Scotian summer. (Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, June 2015)

December 2015 Smithton, NW Tasmania

Standing on cobwebs. One of the harder stacking challenges, made from 22 photos at different focal points. (Under a log, St. Columba Falls, NE Tasmania, March 2014)

A juvenile giant collembolan from bush near Thames, New Zealand (rotten hardwood, February 2016)

A giant collembolan, pausing for a moment in its frantic running to escape my camera. (Under a rotten Nikau palm frond, Punakaiki, New Zealand, June 2014)

A giant collembolan, eating a slime mould fruiting body

A beautiful 11mm giant collembolan from Tasmania. (Milkshake Hills, September 2014)

A giant collembolan from Tasmania. (Under wood in rainforest, Spion Kop, Tasmania, December 2015)

Another beautiful giant springtail from Tasmania. Milkshake Hills, under wood, NW Tasmania, Sept 2014

From Binna Burra, Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia. Found under log.

A very long, 7mm specimen from Tasmania. (Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, October 2014

Quite common in the wet tropics of Australia, around 0.6mm big. (Under wood in rainforest, Cape Tribulation, January, 2016)

A 1.4mm collembolan, rare in the UK, most common in the SW, though appearing to be increasing its range. (Under wood, Snook's Covert, East Pennard, Somerset, January 2015)

A rare, sightless 0.5mm UK collembolan, finally found in profusion in beech woods, Snook's Covert, East Pennard, Somerset, UK.

Common in Tasmania and Victoria, Australia. An undescribed, bright blue collembolan, around 0.8mm big. (Near Westbury in closed wet forest under log. Mid April 2014)

A sightless cave and deep leaf litter species, cosmopolitan but introduced to New Zealand. Photo from Rangitoto Island, New Zealand, where it appears to be the most common collembolan, living throughout the clinker-like crusts of black lava stone across the island. (Under fallen wood, Rangitoto Island, NZ August 2014)

A juvenile from Nova Scotia, Canada. Found under a deep-set rock in forest, May 2015

One of my favourite genera. Very common in caves and dark places. (Under log, Snook's Covert, East Pennard, Somerset March 2015)

From bush near Thames, North Island, New Zealand, February 2016

One from the wet tropics of Australia. (Under wood in garden, Cape Tribulation, January, 2016)

A beautiful collembolan found in scrub, under fallen wood. (Tairua, North Island, New Zealand, (not surprisingly), February, 2014)

A lovely little one, very common in the UK in autumn and winter. (In leaf litter, Compton Dundon, January 2018

This juvenile was found crawling over a load of very long fungal hyphae. It gives some idea on the size, at around 0.6mm. (Bush near Penguin, Tasmania, mid-March 2014)

A juvenile aquatic male and female practice their courtship display by the side of a river. (Cape Tribulation, January 2016)

An aquatic collembolan, common on standing water. Queen Charlotte Island, Haida Gwaii August 2015

Sminthurides species by the edge of water. (Nelson, New Zealand, August 2014)

Found on a pond, Walton, Nr. Wetherby, W. Yorkshire, Nov 2014

... which I placed on a New Zealand 10 cent coin to show how small it is... (Found under wood, in garden, Stewart Island, New Zealand, July 2014)

A common aquatic springtail, a female, sat around on my pond in Somerset UK. (Pond, Compton Dundon, December 2013)

(Lakeside, Lake Wendouree, Ballarat, Australia November 2015)

A very common Collembola, found under stone, Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, April 2015

A beauty from regenerating kauri bush, Tairua, New Zealand, Feb 2016

Probably a Bilobella or Vitronura species, from the wet tropics of Australia. (Under wood in regrowth bush, Cairns, January 2016)

An amazing Collembola from leaf litter, closed wet forest, Birralee, Tasmania. April 2014

Under a log in regenerating bush, Tairua March 2016

A beautiful flat rainforest species, 6mm, photographed in torrential rain. Franz Josef, New Zealand, March 2016

A lovely little collembolan from New Zealand with a thin neck organ, possibly used in oxygen exchange. It shares this unusual adaption with Adelphoderia. Punakaiki, under fallen Rimu bark, NZ Aug 2014

A splendid adult from Tasmania, with the thick neck organ, distinctive for this genus. Under Eucalyptus log, Nr Geeveston, Tasmania, April 2014

Franz Josef Glacier, in terminal moraine under rock at terminus of glacier, New Zealand May 2014

A lovely fat collembolan from Tairua, New Zealand, from regenerating Kauri forest, Feb 2016

A Peeudachorutes species eating a slime mould/myxomycete fruiting body. From Cape Tribulation, Australia, April 2016 from regrowth rainforest.

A beauty from Kuranda, Queensland Australia, April 2016 from under bark in regenerating rainforest.

Adult, from under a log in beech woods, Turville Heath, Oxfordshire, UK

A beautiful juvenile springtail, from near Weinheim, Germany. Found under fallen bark in mixed woodland.

A very common and extremely large Northern Hemisphere springtail, measuring around 3.5mm. Found in beech woodland, East Pennard, Somerset, UK

From Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Found on fallen leaves in tropical rainforest.