Major Springtail Hobby Identification Updates (2026)

I'm currently working on a few projects alongside collembologists, and because of that most of my collection was properly identified. This has led to many ID updates, some with widespread implications. In this post I'll be explaining the changes and some of the implications. For the full list of updates over time see this post: https://www.springtails.us/post/springtail-identification-and-common-name-resource

Below is the list of species with ID changes. The the name that I was selling them as is first, and the new ID is second.

Neanura growae "Florida Orange Springtail" --> Yuukianura aphoruroides "Florida Orange Locality"

This is the most major change with the largest impact on the hobby. First I must take responsibility for popularizing the old ID of N. growae. My stock was viewed by another collembologist via online images without microscopy. This collembologist made the ID assumption based on them being found in the US. I took it upon myself to use that ID instead of the more responsible ID of Neanurinae sp, pending further analysis.

I am changing the common name I use as well to reflect this new ID because this species has already entered the hobby from European (and possibly Asian) stock under other common names.

Already there is much confusion between "N. growae" and Y. aphoruroides because of sellers not tracking species identifications and I deeply regret that this will cause more confusion. I urge others to share this information far and wide to help alleviate the confusion.

This is an Asian species which was already known to be living in the wild in Europe but it seems they are in the US too, even at least as far north as Virginia judging from a new discovery by a friend of mine. I was told by the aforementioned collembologist that they entered Europe via earthworm imports, perhaps they entered the US under similar circumstances. The original Y. aphoruroides stock cultured in the hobby entered the hobby in 2022 under the name "Spanish Orange Springtail" as they were collected in Spain.

Coecobrya sp. (or Coecobrya cf. tenebricosa) "Tropical Pink" --> Coecobrya tenebricosa

Possibly the most confused species in the hobby, we finally have a fully confirmed species level ID. Some sellers have already adopted this name from getting their own stock identified but I opted to wait until now to be safe.

Initially sold for years as Sinella curviseta, I had my stock identified as Coecobrya sp. a few years ago and have been trying ever since to get other sellers and hobbyists to adapt the correct ID. At least the common name isn't quite as confused, though sometimes they go as "Tropical White" because they aren't all that pink (and sometimes F. candida is sold as "Tropical White"... ugh).

"Hypogastruridae sp. "Tiny Blue Springtail" (Lake Keystone, OK Locale) --> Xenylla grisea

The old name only reflected the family level ID, so now having a species name shouldn't be too much of a problem. I urge others to keep the common name and locality info attached to all cultures of this species as it shares a common name with other locality stock.

Isotomurus retardatus "Green Water Springtail" --> Isotomurus cf. louisiana

As this species hasn't been sold widely yet I hope change this will not be too much of a problem. The old ID was difficult to acquire and the new ID is also lacking total certainty hence the "cf.", indicating tentativeness in the species level identification.

Seira bipunctata --> Seira brasiliana

As this species hasn't been been widely sold I hope this change will not be too much of a problem. The original ID was based on macrophotography while the new ID is confirmed via microscopic analysis.

Seira sp. 13 --> Seira purpurea

As this species hasn't been been widely sold I hope this change will not be too much of a problem. The original ID was based on macrophotography while the new ID is confirmed via microscopic analysis.

Entomobrya sp. "Wood Runner Springtail" --> Entomobryoides purpurascens

This is an exciting development! Though unfortunately this species is somewhat widely sold so confusion is sure to arise. We always knew a species ID was needed but it is cool to see the genus updated as well. According to the collembologist who did the identification, this species can be associated with ant nests and has been documented picking up and running off with the pre-killed corpses of F. candida to eat them in private, a behavior I have documented with grains of yeast in a below species of Entomobryoides.

Entomobrya confusa "Varicolored Springtail" --> Entomobrya assuta var. nov.

This one is fun. I'll add the collembologist's note here, and for reference my stock was collected in IL: "Interesting, following color pattern this species keys out to T. triangularis in C&B98. However, the chaetotaxy is completely different. Instead, this seems to be a patternless form of E. assuta. Individuals display two main colors, yellowish brown and greyish blue, the same two background colors reported by Katz et al 2015 for E. assuta's populations in Illinois. The cultured individuals seem to be previously unreported color variations."

I have collected E. assuta from Illinois that match the normal color pattern, and they displayed different behavior from my "Varicolored" stock. Springtail taxonomy can be difficult at times and perhaps we will get clarification when my stock eventually undergoes DNA sequencing.

"var. nov." is an abbreviation of the latin phrase varietas nova, which translates to "new variety". As this species has been somewhat widely distributed, there is likely to be confusion for a while.

Entomobrya griseoolivata "Grizzled Springtail" --> Entomobryoides cf. dissimilis

The old ID was way off mark! But Entomobryoides makes much more sense as this species is much larger than typical Entomobrya. I have also noted this species grabbing individual grains of yeast and running off to eat them alone, a noted behavior in the genus and perhaps an adaptation from life in ant nests. As this species hasn't been been widely sold I hope this change will not be too much of a problem.