Springtail

Scientific NAme

Collembola: Paronellidae - Salina mulcahyae

History and distribution

Originally caught by Dr. Larry Stevens in Lower Madison Springs on the Rio Grande, where it lives under stones at the very back of a rock shelter ledge from which warm spring water emerges. The springtails are quite numerous in their warm, cave mouth-like habitat, but were only found at Lower Madison Springs (one of six Rio Grande springs surveyed by the Springs Stewardship Institute in late April 2015). This species is otherwise known from southeastern New Mexico and southern Arizona, and the collection on the Rio Grande is a 500 km range extension.

Description

The specimens were identified by Dr. Ernest C. Bernard at the University of Tennessee Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, from a high resolution photograph taken by Jennifer Chavez. Dr. Bernard says that"Most Paronellidae are tropical and many of them live high up in trees in the rain forest. The U.S. mainland has only three known species. S. mulcahyae was known from Sierra County, NM (type locality) and from Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties in Arizona."