THE ZOOLOGY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 79 



Loach {Cobitis taenia), and Shad {Clupea alosa), both rare in the Trent; 

 Sturgeon (Acipe riser sturio), captured in the Trent at Clifton and at 

 Cromwell and Muskham; and the Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), 

 caught occasionally in the Trent. 



Invertebrata 



The invertebrate animals of Nottinghamshire had been so little worked 

 that when the British Association last met in Nottingham in 1893 the 

 only groups of which any account could be given in the Handbook were 

 the Lepidoptera, the Mollusca, and, curiously enough, the terrestrial 

 Annelida or Earthworms. During the next twelve years this neglect was 

 so far repaired that in the Victoria History of Nottinghamshire (1906) 

 fairly extensive hsts were given of most of the invertebrate groups. Then 

 followed ten years of great activity in the investigation of our local in- 

 vertebrates, and in 1916 the results of this work were published in The 

 Invertebrate Fauna of Nottinghamshire by J. W. Carr, the first separate 

 work of its kind to be published for any British county. This book of 

 over 600 pages gives an account of the structure and mode of life of the 

 animals belonging to every class and order of the invertebrata, together 

 with details of the distribution of every species found in the county. 



A complete analysis of the 5,330 species recorded would be tedious 

 reading, but a few examples may be cited. 



The number of species of Lepidoptera recorded for the county previous 

 to 1893 was about 670, and the great majority of these were collected by 

 the late R. E. Brameld, of Retford, in the neighbourhood of that town and 

 in Sherwood Forest. In 1916 the number had risen to 933. This in- 

 crease, though fairly large, might easily have been much greater, but the 

 smaller moths — the so-called Micro-Lepidoptera — have been much neg- 

 lected by our local lepidopterists. 



Of the Coleoptera no list could be given in the 1893 British Association 

 Handbook, but, thanks to the splendid work accomplished by the Rev. A. 

 Thornley, the late W. E. Ryles, and others, the list in the Victoria History 

 actually comprised 1,280 species; and this number had increased to 1,409 

 in 1916. 



The Trichoptera or Caddis-flies found in Nottinghamshire numbered 

 45 in 1906 and 65 in 1916. The Hemiptera (Plant-bugs, etc.) were 162 

 and 410 respectively, a very notable increase. Other large advances were 

 made in the Hymenoptera (385 in 1906, 892 in 1916) and the Diptera 

 (347 and 921). 



Of invertebrates other than insects the best-worked group is the 

 Arachnida (spiders, harvestmen, false-scorpions and mites). Not a single 

 species of spider or other member of the class had been recorded before 

 1904, when a prehminary list was published in the Trans. Nottingham 

 Naturalists' Society. In the Victoria History 169 species were enumer- 

 ated, and in the Invertebrate Fauna 247. 



A group of animals that would seem to offer few attractions to the 

 average field-naturalist is the Annelida, which includes the earthworms. 

 The Rev. H. Friend is one of the very few students of this group in 



