Thanks guys!
As has been mentioned on Flickr, they really are very similar to S.viridis aren't they?
Yeah I had them flagged as viridis initially, but then checking through the sminthurus page on collembola.org I came across the hispanicus images from
Ronald Beer in Ibiza and also some from La Palma by
Toby Barton that had exactly the same patterning and colour as my ones. Within viridis there is definitely a lot of variation, some are bright green whilst other are mainly deep browns, but these hispanicus are the closest match for mine that I have come across. Taken into account my current location, it seems to make sense.
Here is the key idenitifiers for viridis taken from Collembola.org:
viridis
Body not only with small violet spots. Body colour not with dorsal dark band or dorsal dark spots. Fifth abdominal segment without dark cross stripes. Fifth abdominal segment with 1 + 1 setae above bothriotrichia D + D. Fourth antennal segment with at most 25 subsegments. Mucro with both posterior edges smooth. Mucronal seta present. Postantennal setae long. Third subcoxa with 1 short, distal seta. Third tibiotarsus row p with 7 setae. Ventral tube with 1 + 1 setae.
And here is hispanicus:
hispanicus
Body not only with small violet spots. Body colour not with dorsal dark band or dorsal dark spots. Fifth abdominal segment with 2 + 2 setae above bothriotrichia D + D. Fifth abdominal segment with setae A1 longer then A2. Fourth antennal segment with at most 25 subsegments. Mucro with both posterior edges smooth. Mucronal seta present. Third tibiotarsus with all inner setae long, thick and acuminate. Ventral tube with 1 + 1 setae.
So the difference seems to be in the 5th abdominal segment:
"Fifth abdominal segment with 2 + 2 setae above bothriotrichia D + D. Fifth abdominal segment with setae A1 longer then A2."
I can't really make these out on my images to be sure though, and I can't find a decent anatomical diagram of a globular specimen to help me decipher it all!
Anyway, I'm going with hispanicus until someone can give a definitive reason for it not to be
Whooosh! both are superb! I love the tones in the first and the perfect left antenna in the second. What surface are they on?.
They are on my back pack and neoprene lens case respectively. I tried to get some in the long grass I found them in but they were mpossible to track, and they were on a steep bank it was difficult to climb up. I did find a couple that had landed on my bag when I put it down, which actually made them lot easier to spot and a bit of variety for the background. I hope to get some in a more natural environment before I head home though!