Crunching over the snow on a warm winter day near the end of March you may just have the delight to come across what looks like pepper spilt across the snow, until it suddenly “springs” in every direction. Is it possible that something as tiny as a grit of sand is alive in such a frozen landscape? Enter the Snow Flea, a fascinating and industrious neighbour that is only brought to our attention when they display their gymnastic winter warrior feats. The rest of the year their dark bodies remain camouflaged as they move about beneath our feet.
The Snow Flea is actually not a flea, nor an insect, but a Springtail, a member of the Collembola class. Amongst other features that distinguish them from insects, they don’t have wings or external mouthparts. Despite the lack of an external mouth these Springtails are marvellous decomposers and a critical part of soil formation around the world. Some estimates say that for every acre of land there are ten million of these little neighbours hiding away. If you dig through your leaf litter you should be able to find these waste managers eating away, usually on vegetation and microorganisms, with some variation depending on the species.
The nickname Snow Flea comes from their incredible jumping ability. The way they jump, however, is quite unique. The Springtail has a furcula (meaning small fork) which is a tension loaded tail-like structure they keep flattened against the underside of their belly. When they feel threatened, the furcula is released against the ground sending the Springtail somersaulting into the air faster than any other animal on the planet. The world record for a long jump by a human is just shy of nine meters. If humans could jump as far as a snow flea, we would be able to jump over twenty-four meters, comparable to jumping over two buses.
As impressive as their jumps are, the Spring tails don’t actually have control of their direction as they take off or land. It is a sudden burst of energy spiralling them to safety elsewhere. I would highly recommend watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXeSnWY6DNc created by a scientist who has been studying Springtails using cameras especially designed to capture their highspeed jumps at a macroscopic level.
They manage to survive the cold temperatures of winter by having their bodies full of glycine rich protein which functions like antifreeze. But what drives the tiny Snow Fleas to the surface in the midst of this cold season? Sunny days provide warmer microclimates where they can find moisture and food on the snow surface. Maybe crawling through the ice crystals helps to shed their exoskeleton, which is the only way they have to get rid of waste in their bodies. However, as I have yet to find a way to converse with these delightful creatures, who is to say that they don’t just come to the surface for a topside view of winter, to stretch their furcula and jump about in eager anticipation for Spring?
