Bristletails

Seeing Bristletails under the slates in one of my ‘range of useful outbuildings’ is enough to remind me that I really need to improve my macro game.

They’re covered in small iridescent scales which glow gold, green and blue in sunlight.

They have large compound eyes which meet on the top of their heads.

Bristletails have three tails. The two outside ones are cerci, just like the pincers on an earwig, except they’re not used for defence or to capture prey, they are more likely to be sensory. The middle ‘tail’ is used for reproduction.

Fossils which look almost identical to modern Bristletails are found in rocks formed from sediments 390 million years ago. That’s as old as the rocks in Orkney.

Finding them means I’ve been inspired to get new batteries for my macro flashguns, so there’ll be no excuses for poor macro images from now on, will there?