springtail
nounEtymology From spring + tail.
1
Any of various wingless hexapods, of the subclass Collembola, with spring-like legs.
- Among the wonders of the natural world that few people have ever noticed: a semiaquatic springtail in motion.2022 November 7, Oliver Whang, “Why Fly or Swim When You Can Jump? Ask the Springtail.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Springtails, or collembolans, are strictly not insects because of technicalities to do with the position of their mouthparts, but they are the closest cousins of insects.2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherlands, Penguin, published 2023, page 214: