What are these?

[JMak]

Hi, I am growing some plants indoors and found these insects all over the soil, they are about 1mm or less in size. I think they might be eating the plants, but I want to know if anyone can identify them. The last one looks different to the others. Are they a threat to the plants?

[Craig Gerard]

Nice SEM images!

Is the creature red in colouration?
Looks like a European Red Mite...
http://www.bitterrootrestoration.com/co ... -mite.html

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... php?t=5699

If that is what your guests happen to be, I wouldn't be too concerned. They don't have a voracious or destructive appetite (unlike their cousins Tetranychus urticae the two-spotted mite).



Craig

[Charles Krebs]

Possibly springtails (Collembola)? .... looks like you can see furcula, especially in images 7 and 8.

If so, they eat decaying plant material, and I don't think are a threat to any garden plants.

[Planapo]

I'm not sure what is pictured in the first photo, but possibly it's a mite, judging from the foot appendages.

But with all the other photos I agree with Charles that they do show Collembola.
Some Collembola can feed on green living plants and few can become agricultural pests, e. g. Sminthurides viridis is known as a pest on alfalfa.

--Betty

[JMak]

Thank you for the replies! I think you are right about them being collembola. The colour varies between soil-brown and yellowish/pale brown. I found some more information here: http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/mi ... bola1.html

I haven't seen them on the leaves of the plants, only in the soil, so hopefully they are just eating the decaying plant matter and not the roots. I don't know how they got there - they are only present in one of the plant pots.

Edit - I think this might be the one -
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/ ... elidae.htm