COLLEMBOLA > ENTOMOBRYOMORPHA > ENTOMOBRYOIDEA > Entomobryidae > Orchesellinae

The primary genus in the Orchesellinae subfamily is Orchesella. It includes five species; the two featured on this website O.cincta and O.villosa that are both common and widespread; O.alticola that is not uncommon, but largely montane; and O.flavescens and O.quingefasciata that are scarce.

Orchesella cincta is not only one of the most common springtails found, but also one of the largest, with fully mature specimens reaching 4mm long. The densely pigmented third abdominal segment is characteristic, although the level of pigmentation is somewhat variable. It’s this feature that gave the species its name cincta meaning ‘belted’, hence the unofficial common name of Belted Springtail. In contrast the second abdominal segment is white as is the distal part of the second antennal segment. The antennae are constructed of six segments, which is characteristic of all Orchesella species with, in the case of Orchesella cincta, the third segment being dark and the fifth and sixth brown, but otherwise the colouring of both the abdomen and antennae can range from reddish-brown through various shades of brown to black. The variable colouring effectively produces a dark and pale form of the species. It is not unusual to see antennae of unequal length probably as a result of damage during one of the early stages of development. The body has numerous short and long setae.