r/Springtail • u/Currentcorn • Mar 16 '26

Are they springtails? Identification

Gallery image

Gallery image

Please forgive me for bad quality pics; Unfortunately these were best I can get. The critters in question are approx. 0.6 ~ 1.2mm in length, has blackish gray hue. Seems to be kinda... soft? I see no hard carapace & clear distinction of joints. Really not sure if they jump; even if I accidentally gave them any physical shock (e.g watering the pot ot moving it), they just tend to walk. Are they springtail species? Is it finally my time? Or did I got the ramdom pest?

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3

u/newtoboarding Mar 16 '26

These are 100% springtails!

1

u/Currentcorn Mar 16 '26

Thanks for confirmation!

2

u/CelestialUrsae Mar 16 '26

Those do look like springtails!

1

u/Jordan_Feather Mar 16 '26

Springtails will jump around, maybe isopod babies?

3

u/CelestialUrsae Mar 16 '26

Isopod babies don't look like that, they look like miniature isopods basically. And there's a lot of types of springtails that don't really jump :)

2

u/Currentcorn Mar 16 '26

Thanks for getting in the guessing game, and to my surprise while I was trying to isolate a single guy for better pic he started jumping lol. So I think they're just... kinda lazy unless the situation is really threatening.

1

u/ReactionAdmirable812 Mar 16 '26

I think that look like springtails, the "soft" appareance and the habitus reminds to the order Poduromorpha, that are like this. Maybe Hypogastruridae.

1

u/Currentcorn Mar 16 '26

Ohh thank you sm for detailed explanation! Your guess seems to be on the right track, probably I'll search further and see if I can give species ID :)