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There is at least one species of uniformly-coloured Isotomurus that occurs in Britain and Ireland. However, there is some confusion as to its (their?) exact identity. Recent work by Matty Berg in The Netherlands and Arne Fjellberg in Norway has gone some way towards clarifying the situation but the matter is by no means resolved. The most likely candidates for these uniformly-coloured specimens with abdominal trichobothria are Isotomurus prasinus and Isotomurus fucicolus (see separate map for comments on the latter).
There are a few scattered records in the literature for Isotomurus palustris var. prasina but there are no specimens in the NHML slide collection.
According to Arne Fjellberg, Isotomurus prasinus is uniform greenish in colour with some bluish on the tip of the abdomen and is very common in moist lawns (e.g. golf courses). Matty Berg has found Isotomurus prasinus to be common in the centre of a wet nutrient-poor meadow near Wageningen (Isotomurus palustris was confined to the wet ditches at the edges of the field).
Reproductive males of Isotomurus prasinus possess dorso-lateral serrated spine setae on abd4 and abd5; these do not occur in Isotomurus fucicolus. There are also other minor morphological differences between the two species but a detailed study of uniformly-coloured Isotomurus in Britain and Ireland is needed before it can be ascertained as to whether these characters will be of any use in identifying the species.
There is an excellent web site on European Isotomurus by Antonio Carapelli and colleagues at the University of Siena [http://www.unisi.it/ricerca/dip/collemboli/isotopage/intro.htm] from which the picture of Isotomurus prasinus shown in Fig. 1 is taken.
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