Checklist of the Collembola: Physiology

The springtail life cycle

• The Checklist gives a newly hatched Folsomia candida as about 0.35 mm long. It adds that newly hatched springtails are pale, though the eye patches are coloured in well pigmented species, and that the young stay still for a while before they start to move. (at Post-embryonic development)
• Springtails do not metamorphose. The young hatch looking like small adults. As they grow, the changes are mostly in size, colour and the finer detail of the antennae and the jumping organ, the furcula. (at Post-embryonic development)
• In the family Hypogastruridae a moult takes 20 to 45 minutes. The animal goes still, and the old skin splits along the back from the head backward. The animal steps out and rests for about 15 minutes before it walks. It does not eat the old skin. (at Exuviation)
• The Checklist says that after each moult a springtail feeds, and that before the next moult it fasts. (at Moulting cycle)
• Springtails keep moulting after they can breed, and they keep growing slowly. The most instars reported are about 50 in Orchesella, while the globular springtails, the Symphypleona, have at most about 10. (at Moulting cycle)
• Life spans in other springtails vary widely. The Checklist gives a maximum of about 32 days in Sminthurinus and 270 days in Orchesella, and about 6 to 18 months in the Hypogastruridae. Massey says springtails usually live less than a year, though some live longer. (at Moulting cycle)