It's Alive Animals

Sperm on a stick for springtails

AIR TIME  Springtails (Orchesella cincta shown) use a springlike appendage to fling their tiny bodies, just a few millimeters long, into the air.

© G. Drange/Biopix

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

For springtails, sex can be an Easter egg hunt. Many males of the tiny soil organisms sustain their species by leaving drops of sperm glistening here and there in the landscape in case a female chooses to pick one up.