A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



indebtedness to Mr. G. C. Bignell, Mr. H. Goss, Mr. J. H. Keys, Mr. C. G. 

 Lamb, Mr. W. J. Lucas, and also to the late Mr. C. G. Barrett, and the 

 late Mr. R. McLachlan for such encouragement, assistance, and advice as 

 only the experienced can give, and without which many of the difficulties 

 might have proved insuperable. 



APTERA 



In spite of their simplicity of structure and their abundance, the beautiful, active little insec 

 popularly known as ' Spring-tails ' have been singularly neglected by entomologists generally. The 

 difficulties in the way of their effective preservation, their minute size, and their remarkably 

 unobtrusive habits are probably in great measure responsible for this unmerited neglect. Moisture 

 and darkness seem to be necessities of life among the many, and their customary habitats are among 

 damp leaves, under wood and stones, and the bark of decaying trees, by streams and ditches, and in 

 one or two instances the surface of water in stagnant pools. Disused flowerpots stored away in a 

 damp shady corner of the garden are a happy hunting-ground for the beginner. In Lord Avebury's 

 monograph on the order, sixty-one British species are described. The Cornish species have been 

 carefully examined by E. D. Marquand, who in the Transactions of the Penzance Natural History 

 and Antiquarian Society (new series), vol. i, gives a minute description of forty-eight species, one of 

 which is new to the British Isles. The county species are as follows : 



Smynthurus viridis 

 fuscus 



aureus 



niger 

 Papirius fuscus 



ornatus 



nigromaculatus 

 Orchesella cincta 



villosa 

 Tomocerus longicornis 



plumbeus 



niger 



Templetonia crystallina 

 Seira platani 



nigromaculata 



buskii 



Beckia argentea 

 Lepidocyrtus curvicollis 



lignorum 



violaceus 



gibbulus 



purpureus 

 Degeeria nivalis 



annulata 



lanuginosa 



nicoletii 



cincta 

 Isotoma arborea 



viatica 



viridis 



aquatilis 



anglicana 



Isotoma grisea 

 Achorutes dubius 



purpurescens 



murorum 



similatus, Nic. (new) 

 Podura aquatica 



Tullbergii 

 Lipura ambulans 



Burmeisteri 



fimetaria 



maritima 

 Anoura muscorum 

 Campodea staphylinus 

 Lepisma saccharina 

 Machilis polypoda 



maritima 



ORTHOPTERA 



Earwigs, Cockroaches, Grasshoppers, and Crickets 



With the exception of Dr. Cocks of Falmouth, none of the resident entomologists of the 

 county have paid more than passing attention to this attractive order, and up to the present the 

 literature consists of some notes by Cocks in the Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society 

 for 1858 and a short paper by C. W. Dale, 'Orthoptera of West Cornwall,' in vol. iii of the 

 Transactions of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society (1890), together with sundry 

 records scattered through various papers and journals. In Burr's valuable little work on the British 

 Orthoptera there are many references to Cornwall formed on these published data. The following 

 notes are based on the records of previous collectors, on the varied material brought in by the 

 students of the Technical Schools during the past seven years, and on notes kindly supplied by 

 fellow-entomologists. 



FORFICULARIA 



Earwigs 



Two specimens of that southern species, Anisolabis annulipes (Lucas), probably introduced by 

 some calling vessel, were taken by W. Oliver not far from Falmouth Station in June, 1900. 

 They both possessed nine abdominal segments, and were, therefore, presumably males. 



The lesser earwig (Labia minor, L.) is locally abundant in summer, flying round heaps of stable 

 manure in the bright sunshine. In 1902 it was plentiful in a recently built stone hedge-bank near 

 Newquay, and in 1 904 was common for a few days flying over the flowers in the Victoria Gardens, 

 Truro. 



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