Ruud Kleinpaste: Collembola

Most people have probably never heard of “Collembola”, but I reckon they are the most important critter on the planet as their “job” is often simply recycling. 

Your garden wouldn’t stand a chance without them, and nor does our planet. The circular economy starts with Collembola and ends with “Zero Waste”. 

A large number feed on bacteria, fungi, and rotting plant materials; some go for living plants (and can be a pest on some crops). Others devour algae and some even prey on insects. 

Collembola are no longer considered to be “insects” although they still belong to the group of “hexapods” (six-legged creatures). 

Oh, by the way, the name of this group (Collembola) comes from two features: “Colla” which means glue, and “embolon” which is a “peg”, or a “piston” (referring to a structure on the underside of the body). 

At last count there are some 6000 species on our planet, but what do we know? There could be as many as 40,000 taxa! 

If you climb a tree in New Zealand, you are like to find them near the top where branches emerge from the main trunk, it’s usually full of decaying old plant materials; great habitat for our Collembola! 

When examining the contents of your compost bin it quickly becomes clear they are the most numerous invertebrates. 

Collembola working on a juicy stalk of rhubarb 

You may think they are quite boring in their appearance, and indeed a lot of them are tiny (a few millimetres in size) and just one low-key colour. But some are quite attractive: Holacantella is endemic to New Zealand and is often on dead timber and bark, especially in wet conditions. 

And look at that weird body armour – or are they different species? 

For some reason our Collembola love living in moist (and warm) environments. But then again, some species are restricted to cooler climates (think Antarctica! Minus 60 degrees is just not too cold for them). 

The craziest thing you can see at this time of the year is a rather elegant deep blue species that seems to enjoy a spot of “rafting” or “drifting” in slow-moving water courses. Every year I see them, here on the Port Hills of Canterbury. After all these years I have not been able to identify these species with certainty. 

They swim in puddles, and jump around in sheep troughs.  

Those pistons (or “pegs”) I described from the word ‘embolon’ are literally the tools that make the jumping (and dispersal) possible, even in water. 

No wonder that their common name in horticulture, agriculture and garden nomenclature is... SPRING TAILS   

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack tam podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A'd be rude, climb past our man in the garden,
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good morning.

Speaker 4 (00:17):
Anything new from from the Jack Tame Garden At the moment.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
No things, So I just you know what I'm trying.
I'm waiting to see. At the moment, I think I
told you about this. I had a bit of a
disaster with some hedging that I put in last year.
And remember I didn't I didn't water it right in
the middle of summer because I thought it was all good,
and then it turned out that it wasn't all good,
Like the half of the hedge kind of died. And
I'm basically waiting to see if it's gonna survive. I

(00:42):
still don't know. It's my point, and I wondered if
some at some point soon I feel like it's alive.
But at some point soon, should I be expecting all
the leaves are gone? Should I should I be expecting
to see some buds and some new leaves?

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Depends on if its name is Lazarus.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Okay, I can't remember if its name is Lazarus.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
But I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
If it's I'm not sure if it has lazarus call necessarily.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
That's the point that. Oh, yeah, here's a good trick.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
If you got a little I call it the sharp hanky,
but I've got a pocket knife from my pocket. And
if you give a little scrape over the back and
under the bark, you'll see green material. Yes, it is
still alive.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
And if you don't.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
If you don't, you'll have to go back to mister
and missus old Rings or Barmas or whoever and get
some more and try to get the same material if
you like the same species, the same variety.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Is it possible that like that the outer branches will
be gone, but the inner branches will be Okay, Yeah, yeah,
I think that might you.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Do with a cup, just a slight scratch and you
can see it and it's green.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
You know, there's hope, man.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I'm just hoping.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Anyway, we're talking about one this morning that most people
have never even heard of.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Had you heard of Colombola?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
No? No, But apparently I hadn't heard of watering my
my new bushes in the middle of summer either, So.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
There you go. Well, Columbola. I actually springtails.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
They are known as springtails, and they are, and I
just realized they actually because I've got heaps of the
Midi garden at the moment. They are absolutely unbelievably important
for our gardens because their job, literally their ecosystem service,
is to recycle dead material. That's what they do. We've

(02:27):
got six thousand species on the planet, but nobody knows
it could be forty thousand different Texa, God knows. That's
the point. Yeah, And Colombola comes from one. I like
that word Colombla cola first one, which is glue cola.
And an embolon is a peg or a piston, because

(02:47):
most of the glembla have got a little piston on
the underside of their body with which they can jump,
which is why they call springtails. But anyway, these things
you find literally in your garden, in the compost, under
the plants that are actually as you think, as you
might think are dying at the moment in your heads,
for instance, they are the ones that literally recycle everything

(03:09):
and put it back into NPK for the future. Now,
there are some seriously cooled species, and I've photographed them
and sent them on to Libby to put on the website.
There are some things that you find in your like.
I've got this lovely red rhubarb and this columbula working
on that. They're white, crazy crazy stuff. There are a

(03:29):
little columbola that I find with my granddaughter in Rangatawani Oakuni,
and she loves those little tiny things. They're quite nice.
They are about three or four millimeters in size, and
they've got these weird little things sticking out of their.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Skulls and all that, and their skins. They're everywhere.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
But the best thing at this time of the year
for anybody wants to have a look. If it's rained,
have a look at puddles. There is a deep blue
species that rafts or a drifts on puddles and it
moves around. And I'm not talking about one or two.
I'm talking million. It's probably a square foot.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
That's extraordinary. Okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Beautiful.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, that's incredible. Hey, thank you so much, Rude, and
thank you for your reassuring words.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
As always, you'll be fine.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I'm not sure my magnolias will Rude climb past in
the garden

Speaker 1 (04:25):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live
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