I was looking at some leaf litter under a microscope and I saw hundreds of black little dots moving around....

Question

they were too small for the microscope, but they were moving and definitely something living. How would I classify them?

Answer 1

There are numerous possibilities since the soil mesofauna includes nematodes, arthropods (mites, centipedes, springtails, insects), annelids, and molluscs (snails). Mesofauna scale is defined to be generally from .2mm up to 10mm.
Mesofauna at the smallest are nematodes from 1/2 to 1 mm. Worms vary from .1mm to 5cm.
Insects can include ants, beetles & larvae, or termites.

Insect ID sites
http://whatsthatbug.com/
Lists The Good, the Ugly (occasionally bad), & the Really Bad
http://gardening.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=gardening&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk%2Finsects.htm
Soil field guides
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/undergroundadventure/kidzone/field_guide.shtml
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/soil/

Look for the book 'Life in the Soil: A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners' or ' The World Beneath Our Feet: A Guide to Life in the Soil both by James Nardi
'Life in a Bucket of Soil' by Silverstein
'A Handful of Dirt' by Bial

Answer 2

they were houseflies that sometimes start to form when turgor pressure of the stomata is less but not flaccid, so the stomatal pores develop a fairly strong vacuum which causes housefly eggs in the surrounding atmosphere to be pulled inwards and get suspended on the leaf lamina. these aint developed into flies yet but are motile due to air streams which causes the infinitesmally small eggs to appear as if floating about the leaf's surface.

Answer 3

Do you have pets? i might wager it became a flea judging from the scale and "leaping around". in simple terms like mosquitoes, some human beings scent extra suitable/flavor extra suitable to them than others. it is why you have the bites and your husband would not. Taking a diet B1 supplement can sometime help with this. interior the intervening time, think of approximately washing your sheets many times for a pair of weeks, and vacuum customary, exceptionally around the sides of the room with a vacuum cleanser attachment. in case you at the instant are not against insecticides, you additionally can use that carpet powder it is meant to kill the two fleas and their eggs for 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. i might pretty propose utilising Frontline for any cats or canines.