426 'Mr. J. W. Shoebotham's Notes on CoUemhola. 



There liave been many different arrangements of llic 

 Collembola made during the last 75 years, and the number 

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



Nietdot (184'.'2) has tlie springtails divided into the 

 SmiiiithureUes, Podurelles, and Lipiirelles, and Lubbock 

 (IHGJ) (nilled these Smi/nthir'hhe, Foduridce, and Lipuridce, 

 >vhile in liis monograph (1873) he formed 6 families, viz., 

 Sinynthuiid'£, Papiriidce, Deyeeriad(P., Poduridce, Lipuridie, 

 and Anourida. Various modifications were used by authors 

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

 Neelidce — was made for the reception of the genus Nee/us of 

 Folsom. Sclialfcr (18'JG), in his paper on " 'J'lie Collembola 

 from the Neighbourhood of Hamburg/' differentiated the 

 subfamilies Isotomince and Tomocerince, which now rank as 

 se})arate families. 



During the present century the work of Borner has done 

 much to advance our kuowledgc of the classification of the 

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

 he divided the Collembola into two suborders, the linear 

 kinds to be grouped under the uame ArtJiropleona and tlie 

 globular forms he called Symphypleona. Keys were given 

 to the families and subfamilies of the Arlhropleona, 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 Poduridce, 

 Entomobryida, Neelidae, and Smmt/iuridce, 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 

 ParoneUa 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 

 uame " Trochanteral organ." On looking through his collec- 

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

 the true Entumobryince, but absent in the Tomocerina and 

 IsotumiiKB. This discovery led Borner to propose a new 

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

 firstly divided the Arlhropleona into two natural sections 

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

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

 corresponds to the new section Poduromorpha, was divided 

 into three, the subfamilies Hypogustrurina and Onych'mrina 

 being raised to the family rank, and the name Poduridce 



