222 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



record of tlie majority of the species now to be found here ; 

 and perhaps it may be the means, directly or indirectly, of 

 bringing about that fuller list which is bound some day to 

 make its appearance. 



In giving the local data so fully in this and other similar 

 papers, I have been influenced largely by a desire that 

 they should be available for any topographical "census," or 

 county lists of the groups, that may in the course of time 

 be attempted. Some slight account of the Edinburgh 

 district in its zoological aspects will be found in previous 

 papers.] 



The Collembola (Spring-tails) and Thysanura (Bristle-tails) 

 are best known to British naturalists through Lubbock's 

 "Monograph" (7), published by the Bay Society in 1873. 

 During recent years our knowledge of the species of these 

 insects has been increased mainly by the labours of North- 

 European investigators — Tullberg and Schott in Sweden, 

 Eeuter in Finland, and Schaffer in Hamburg. Their works, 

 which deal with the species mentioned in our list, are 

 enumerated at the end of the present paper, and most of 

 the forms now recorded for the first time as British will 

 be found fully described in one or other of them. The 

 beautiful monograph of Schott (15) has been especially 

 valuable for the identification of our captures, and has 

 supplied us with much information as to the geographical 

 distribution of the various species. 



In cases where revision of the synonymy has led to a 

 change in the name under which a species stands in 

 Sir John Lubbock's "Monograph," the latter when known 

 has been inserted after the one now used ; but a number of 

 the forms mentioned in that work cannot be recognised with 

 any degree of certainty, in consequence of the descriptions 

 containino^ little or no reference to those minute structural 

 characters now chiefly relied upon. It would be well if 

 these doubtful points in synonymy could be cleared up, and 

 we are glad to hear from Sir John, with whom we have had 

 some correspondence on the subject, that he thinks of taking 

 up the matter himself in the near future. 



