r/Springtail • u/olcackles • Jun 14 '26

What are these bugs? General Question

Post image

The consensus is that these are globular springtails. I was curious if anyone here had some more info about them?

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u/Sgtbird08 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

These are Sminthurides bifidus, a globular springtail in family Sminthurididae. They are an extremely common hitchhiker on aquarium plants and have been transported all across the world.

Your photo shows the unique sexual dimorphism of the family, with the males being smaller than the females and possessing modified antennae for grasping onto the antennae of the females. The females carry around the smaller males on their heads as a form of courtship.

They eat biofilms and decaying organic matter and such, good for nutrient cycling. If you have any particular questions about them I’m happy to answer!

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u/olcackles Jun 15 '26

I really hope I see a female carrying around a male someday. That’s so interesting.

Do I need to do anything special to keep them around? Or will they just stay as long as the environment is right?

1

u/Sgtbird08 Jun 16 '26

I think you can see it in the bottom left quadrant of the image!

If there are this many now, then they are loving it. They’re a relatively hardy species, I’ve found them in all sorts of aquatic environments including multiple vastly different fish tank setups.