Springtail

Springtails; Temporal range: early Devonian ; to present
	Orchesella cincta
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Hexapoda
Class:	Entognatha
Subclass:	Collembola; Lubbock, 1870

Springtails (Collembola) are six-legged arthropods. They used to be thought of as proto-insects, but now they are not regarded as insects. They do not have wings.[1]

They live in the soil, and eat fungal hyphae, spores, pollen and other organic material. They need moist soils, and have been known to damage crops.[2]

References

Gillott, Cedric 2005. Apterygote hexapods. In Entomology. 3rd ed, Berlin: Springer, pp. 113–125. ISBN 978-0-306-44967-3
Shaw, Michael W. & Haughs, G. M. (1983). "Damage to potato foliage by Sminthurus viridis (L.)" (PDF). Plant Pathology. 32 (4): 465–466. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3059.1983.tb02864.x.

Other websites

Media related to Collembola at Wikimedia Commons
List of the Collembola of the World
General information on Collembola

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[1] Gillott, Cedric 2005. Apterygote hexapods. In Entomology. 3rd ed, Berlin: Springer, pp. 113–125. ISBN 978-0-306-44967-3

[2] Shaw, Michael W. & Haughs, G. M. (1983). "Damage to potato foliage by Sminthurus viridis (L.)" (PDF). Plant Pathology. 32 (4): 465–466. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3059.1983.tb02864.x.