426 Mr. J. W. Slioebotham's Notes on Collembola. 



There liave been many different arrangements of ilie 

 Colleml)ola made during the last 75 years, and the number 

 of families recognized has varied from 3 to as many as 8. 



Nicolet (1842) has the springtails divided into tlie 

 Smynthurelles, Podurelles, and Lipurelles, and Lubbock 

 (1862) called these Smynthuridce, Fudurida, and Lipuridce, 

 Avhile in his monograph (1873) he formed 6 families, viz., 

 Si/ii/uthund(e, Paphiidce, DegeeriadiP., Podurida, Lipuridce, 

 and Aiiourida. Yarious modifications were used by authors 

 till the end of the 19th century, when another family — 

 Neelidce — was made for the reception of the genus Neelus of 

 Folsom. Schaffer (18[)6), in his paper on " The Collembola 

 from the Neighbourhcjod of Hamburg/' differentiated the 

 subfamilies IsotomiacB and TomoceriiKS, which now rank as 

 sep'.irate families. 



During the present century the work of Borner has done 

 much to^ advance our knowledge of the classification of tiie 

 order Collembola. In one of his earliest papers (1901 «) 

 he divided the Collembola into two suborders, the linear 

 kinds to be grouped under the name ArthropUona and tlie 

 globular forms he called SymphypleoJia. Keys were given 

 to the families and subfamilies of the Arthropleona, and 

 these, together with an account of the Symphypleona, were 

 given in more detail in his paper on " The Apterygotal 

 Fauna of Bremen" (1901 b). Then, in 1906, in his work 

 on " The Classification of the Collembola/' Borner discussed 

 the whole group and the relationship of the families, sub- 

 families, and tribes. He recognized the families Poduridie, 

 Entoinobryidce, Neelida;, and Smint/iurida, and gave a synopsis 

 of the subfamilies and tribes. This system, with but little 

 variation, was used by authors for many years. Then, in 

 1913, when examining some species of Pseudosira and 

 ParoueUa from Java, Borner happened to find a peculiar 

 structure on the hinder trochanters, in the form of a number 

 of short, outstanding, pointed bristles, to which he gave the 

 name " Trochanteral organ. ^' On looking through his collec- 

 tion of slides, he found that this structure was present in all 

 the true Entomobryma, but absent in the TomocerincB and 

 Isutumiuce. This discovery led Borner to propose a new 

 arrangement of families, which I give in this paper. He 

 firstly divided the Arthropleona into two natural sections 

 according to the structure of the prothorax (see below, in 

 Key to Families, etc.). The old family Poduridce, which 

 corresponds to the new section Poduromorpha, was divided 

 into three, the subfamilies Hypogastrurince and Otiychiu7'in(B 

 beiuii i-iised to the familv rank, and the name Poduridce 



