Soil Bugs: an illustrated guide to New Zealand soil invertebrates, Collembola (springtails)

The springtail life cycle

• A female springtail lays her eggs on a surface and leaves them there. In some species the eggs can wait through a long diapause, a pause in development. (at Notes on biology)
• 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 Notes on biology)
• A young springtail moults 3 to 12 times before it can breed, depending on the species. Four or five moults is usual. (at Notes on biology)
• Springtails have separate sexes, and sperm passes between them indirectly. A male leaves small packets of sperm, called spermatophores, on a surface, and a female finds and picks one up. (at Notes on biology)
• Some species breed without males. Most Folsomia candida populations reproduce without mating, so every animal is a female, though some wild populations are sexual. (at Notes on biology)
• 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 Notes on biology)
• 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 Notes on biology)