Springtail Rain

 Hello again. I found something interesting in my yard today, so here I am to tell you about it. We got a lot of rain today, from the early morning hours until just around noon. I went outside to check the mail around the time the rain stopped, and from the moment I walked out on the porch I saw that there were springtails everywhere. They were on the front steps, on the walkway down to the mailbox, on the yard furniture, on rocks, on the side of the house... everywhere. As I was walking back to the house without the mail (because it had not arrived yet), I happened to glance at our rotting jack o'lantern, sitting on a rock at the edge of the woods where my husband put it when I asked him to move if off the porch (I asked him to do it because it is moldy, and I am allergic to mold, so I didn't want to carry it back to the compost pile. Apparently, he didn't want to carry it back there, either, so it's on a rock in front out the house, grinning at me when I look out), and I wondered if, even though it is collapsing as it decays, it would be full of rain water. I don't know why I thought of that, or why I decided to go over and look inside to see if it was filled with rainwater, but I did, and it was. It was also full of the most springtails I have ever seen crowded together in my life:

So many springtails. And one of these things is not like the others...

There's one of a different species in there. Well, there could be more, that's the one I spotted Where's Waldo style.

Then on my woods walk, I spotted this:

Sorry, cellphone photo. These are snowfleas, another species of springtail, on a bridge over a stream. The stream has been dry for months, with a few pools of water collecting in the rains of the last month, but today it was running because 2.5+ inches over about 8 hours is pretty substantial for us right now.

So there you have it. Masses of springtails, and 3 species.