Clare Island Survey — Apterygota. 32 11 



SMINTHURIDAE. 



Sminthurus fuscus (Linne). 



"Westport (J. N. H., July, 1911). Achill (H. W. Kew, June, 1910). 



In Ireland as well as in Great Britain the species is widespread, but 



less common than others of the family. Abroad it is known from many 



European countries, from North Africa, the Azores, and North and South 



America. 



Sminthurus viridis (Linne). 



Westport (J. N. H., July, 1911). 



This is a common and widespread insect in Ireland and Great Britain, 

 while its range abroad extends from Novaya Zemlya to Japan, Tunis, and 

 La Plata. 



DlSTKIBUTIONAL NOTES. 



The Apterygota of Clare Island are remarkable for the generally northern 

 facies presented by the fauna. Of the eighteen species of Collembola, all but 

 two — Anurida maritima and Orcliesella villosa — are included in Linnaniemi's 

 Finnish list (1912) ; and all but six — the two above-mentioned with Xenylla 

 maritima, Tomocerus minor, Smintlmricles aquaticus, and Dicyrtomina minuta 

 — inhabit arctic or sub-arctic countries. In correspondence with the far 

 western position of Clare Island, it is also noteworthy that of its eighteen 

 recorded springtails, all but three — Entomobrya Nicoletii, Orcliesella villosa, 

 and Dicyrtomina minida — are found in America, or at least in Greenland. 

 Attention has already been called to the American affinities of the common 

 Irish shore-haunting Thysanuran — Petrobius — though it is not known to be 

 identical with any transatlantic species. The other Thysanuran — Praema- 

 chilis hibemica — and the Collembolan Orcliesella villosa mentioned above, are, 

 on the other hand, members of the southern or Mediterranean faunistic group. 



Our knowledge of the distribution of these insects is as yet too scanty to 

 warrant any dogmatic generalizations ; yet the facts of the Clare Island 

 Apterygotan fauna harmonize well with the theory of a western Continental 

 laud linking the present Irish area with south-western Europe, and with 

 America by way of the Arctic Eegions. At the same time the presence of 

 the springtails recorded from Puffins' and Gulls' nests on the Bills Bocks, 

 warns us that we must admit the possibility of the accidental transport of 

 these small insects across sea-channels by the agency of birds. 



Beferences. 

 1910. Bagnall, B. S. — Short Notes on some new and rare British 



Collembola. Trans. Nat. Hist. Soe. Northumb. and Durham, hi, 2. 

 1899. Carpenter, G. H., and W. Evans — The Collembola and Thysanura of 



the Edinburgh District. Proc. Boy. Phys. Soc. Edinb., xiv. 



