Zoology 67 



Some of the College cellars provide a number of species. Rather damp 

 cellars provide the largest fauna, but the long-legged and small bluish 

 humpy-bodied Pholcid, Physocychis simotii BerL, is exceptional in liking 

 dry wine cellars such as those of King's and Trinity Hall. Since first adding 

 this species to the British list in 1932, the present writer has discovered it in 

 no less than nine counties, but, apparently, it has not been found elsewhere 

 in Britain. Abroad, it is known in France only. The Pholcid, Plwlcus 

 phalangioidcs Fuess. is also present in Cambridge cellars, but its much 

 larger size, different coloration and somewhat elongate body, easily 

 distinguish it. 



The only British Mygalomorph spider in the County, Atypus affinis 

 Eieh., has been recorded from DevU's Dyke, where its closed silken tube, 

 like the finger of a glove, should be sought amongst vegetation on the 

 sloping bank. 



The recorded harvest spiders and pseudo-scorpions do not include any 



special rarities. 



INSECTA 



Accoimts of five of the major groups in this class are given below. These 

 will serve to give an idea of some of the more noteworthy species that are 

 to be found in the County. Good reference collections of all the major, 

 and most of the smaller, orders of insects are contained in the University 

 Museum of Zoology. 



HEMIPTERA {HETEROPTERA) } Cambridgesliire contains four 

 main types of country, each of which possesses a distinctive Heteroptera 

 fauna correlated with the associated flora and soil conditions. To the south 

 lies the chalk; westwards are heavy clays; to the north is the drained 

 alluvium of the fen basin; and in the east the boundary includes a small tract 

 of the Breckland (see Fig. 56). The County list contains 256 species, out 

 of 492 recorded for Britain. Drainage and agriculture have changed 

 conditions, and in the Fenland at least the dominant species to-day are 

 more typical of cultivated land than of marsh. 



Although the fen basin was formerly an estuarine sea, no coast-loving 

 species seem to have survived there, with the exception possibly of 

 Rhyparochromus praetextatus, Teretocoris antennatus and T. saundersi, Salda 

 pallipes, and a doubtful record o( Piesma quadrata. On the other hand, the 

 freshwater fauna may not have changed gready; for although since 

 the draining, standing water has diminished in extent, conditions in the 

 habitat itself have probably remained fairly constant. Of the seventy-five 

 species of water-bugs recorded for Britain, forty-seven have been found 

 in Cambridgeshire. Most of them are widely distributed forms, charac- 



' By Mrs M. D. Brindley. 



5-2 



