Homidia pentachaeta is a species of soil-dwelling springtail

Springtail

Springtails form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects...

 belonging to the family Entomobryidae

Entomobryidae

The family Entomobryidae contains the so-called "slender springtails", a group of springtails characterised as having an enlarged fourth abdominal segment and a well-developed furcula. Species in this family may be heavily scaled and can be very colourful...

. It is currently only known from its type

Biological type

In biology, a type is one particular specimen of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached...

 location in the vicinity of Nanjing

Nanjing

' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

, People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

.

This is a white to pale purple springtail up to 3 mm in length with dark blue eye patches and a triangular dark patch between the antennae

Antenna (biology)

Antennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in most cell types of eukaryotes....

. There are 2 dark patches on the back of the thorax

Thorax

The thorax is a division of an animal's body that lies between the head and the abdomen.-In tetrapods:...

 and another dark patch on the back of the abdomen

Abdomen

In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...

. There is scattered dark pigmentation across the rest of the body. The main distinguishing feature of this species is the presence of five (rather than three or four in other Homidia species) macrochaeta

Chaeta

A chaeta or cheta is a chitinous bristle or seta found on an insect, arthropod or annelid worms such as the earthworm, although the term is also frequently used to describe similar structures in other invertebrates. The plural form is chaetae or chetae.In the Polychaeta, they are located on the...

e laterally on the third abdominal segment. This is reflected in the specific name.