Family SMINTHURIDAE
Compiler and date details
Penelope Greenslade, School of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Introduction
This family was recognised by Richards (1968) as a subfamily but is treated here as a family following Betsch (1980), who raised Richards' seven subfamilies to family status. The Sminthuridae includes taxa centred on the Northern Hemisphere and the tropics. One of these have been introduced to Australia. Three genera and six species are recorded for Australia.
Members of the Sminthuridae are fairly large globular animals and often have long antennae and many sprine-like macrochaetae on the body and/or head. Sminthurus viridis (Clover Springtail or Lucerne Flea) is the well known pest species inadvertently introduced from Europe. The genus Sphyrotheca has a number of undescribed species in wet tropical areas and the genus Temeritas is restricted to both temperate and tropical humid forests but is absent from Tasmania.
Neosminthurus Mills, 1934 has been recorded from Australia (Holt 1985), but has no described species here.
Diagnosis
Characterised by: thorax I reduced and without setae, mandibular plate present, thorax II to abdomen IV more or less fused and globular, abdomen V and VI also fused, postantennal organ absent, antenna III equal to or shorter than antenna IV, males bearing clasping antennae, females lacking anal appendages.
References
Betsch, J.M. 1980. Éléments pour une monographie des Collemboles Symphypléones. (Hexapodes, Aptérygotes). Mémoires. Museum Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris Zool. 116: 1–227
Greenslade, P.J.M. & Greenslade, P. 1989. Ground layer invertebrate fauna. Chapter 17. pp. 266–284 in Noble, J.C. & Bradstock, R.A. (eds). Mediterranean Landscapes in Australia. Mallee ecosystems and their management. Melbourne : CSIRO
Greenslade, Penelope 1982. Origins of the Collembolan fauna of arid Australia. pp. 267–272 in Barker, W.R, & Greenslade, P.J.M. (eds). Evolution of the Flora and Fauna of Arid Australia. Frewville, Adelaide : Peacock Press vii 392 pp.
Greenslade, Penelope 1985. Terrestrial invertebrates of the Mound Springs, Bores, Creek Beds and other habitats. pp. 64–77 in Greenslade, J., Joseph, L. & Reeves, A. (eds). South Australia's Mound Springs. Adelaide : Nature Conservation Society of South Australia
Greenslade, Penelope & Greenslade, P.J.M. 1977. Effects of vehicles on arthropods inhabiting the soil surface. pp. L93–L98 in Gilbertson, D.D. & Foale, M.R. (eds). The Southern Coorong and Lower Younghusband Peninsula of South Australia. Adelaide : Nature Conservation Society of South Australia
Greenslade, Penelope & Thompson, C.H. 1981. Collembola from the Cooloola-Noosa River area, Queensland. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 92: 11–19
Holt, J.A. 1985. Acari and Collembola in the litter and soil of three north Queensland rainforests. Australian Journal of Ecology 10: 57–65
Richards, W.R. 1968. Generic classification, evolution and biogeography of the Sminthuridae of the world (Collembola). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 53: 1–54
Stach, J. 1956. The Apterygotan fauna of Poland in relation to the world-fauna of this group of insects. Family: Sminthuridae. Cracow : Pol. Akad. Nauk Pt 6 287 pp. 33 pls