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copyright 1951, by Victoria University of Wellington
All unambiguous end-of-line hyphens have been removed and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line, except in the case of those words that break over a page.
Some keywords in the header are a local Electronic Text Collection scheme to aid in establishing analytical groupings.
Publication of this paper has been assisted by a grant from the Victoria University College Publications Fund.
The keys presented in this paper are intended to assist in the identification of Collembolan species down to the level of the genera. All generic names published to the end of the year
Present systematic work on the Collembola is still based largely on Börner's "Das System der Collembolen," published in
A key, at its best, cannot contain, nor attempt to contain, all the features pertaining to each particular genus, but includes only those salient features most useful in identification. For this reason these keys, when final identification is at all in doubt, should always be used in conjunction with the original literature. To assist in this regard, I have included a bibliography which is cross-indexed to the keys by a system of numbers, and which should simplify the always difficult process of referring to the published works of past authors.
The bibliography was compiled, in the first place, from the Zoological Record and from Biological Abstracts, assisted by reference to Neave's Nomenclature Zoologicus, the Catalogue of the Library of the British Museum of Natural History, and bibliographies published by other authors. The great majority of the entries have been checked by actual reference to the papers themselves—either by consulting the works available in New Zealand libraries or by means of microfilm copies obtained from Australia, the United States of America, and England. In so far as is possible by searching, checking, and cross-checking, the bibliography is a complete list of all the published works and papers dealing in any way with the Collembola up to and including the year
For any inaccuracies or omissions that may have crept in, I can only apologise in advance, and ask that they be drawn to my notice by whomsoever may come across them.
In using these keys the bracketed number following each generic name refers to the entry in the bibliography in which the original generic description may be found. Only new synonymy is discussed in the footnotes, as space does not permit of a discussion of all the synonymy included in this work. Most of the synonymy indicated is accepted by specialists in this field of entomology, but, where there may be some doubt, a second bracketed number has been included to indicate works in which discussion may be found.
In working out the keys, the affirmative or the normal condition always takes precedence over the negative or abnormal condition, and is worked out to its conclusion first.
There has, in the past, been a certain amount of confusion in the interpretation of the furcula and the clothing among the Collembolan specialists. These structures are interpreted in these keys as defined below, and I suggest that the adoption of these definitions in future work may help to clarify this situation.
Furcula: This organ is described extended at right-angles from the body, in a similar position to that adopted by the legs in repose, so that it presents an anterior and a posterior face. The anterior face is the surface usually described as dorsal when the organ is held in the resting position beneath the abdomen.
Clothing: The clothing of Collembola is extremely important in their systematic study, and may consist of scales, setae, spines, bristles, and hairs, all of which may or may not occur together on the one species.
Scales, when present, may be either hyaline or pigmented; plain, ribbed, fluted, striated, or ciliated, and of various shapes from round and blunt to oval or pointed.
Setae are the most common form of clothing occurring in the Collembola, Several distinct types of setae in addition to the normal plain setae can be recognized and defined as follows:—
Setae are readily recognized and differentiated from hairs and bristles in that they taper gradually from the base towards the apex, where they terminate in a fine point.
Hairs may be recognized by their even width for almost their entire length and by their flexible nature. Hairs in Collembola may be long or short, plain, ciliated, clavate, or spathulate. The hairs occurring at the apex of the tibio-tarsus, in association with the claw, though in structure more often of the tapering nature of setae, are referred to as tenent hairs and are generally either clavate or spathulate.
Bristles are really stout, stiff hairs. They may be plain, ciliated, or divided. Divided bristles are those in which the apex is subdivided into from three to seven short finger-like processes. This type of bristle is usually, situated at the apex of the mesotergum, and is characteristic of the Lepidophorellinae.
Spines commonly occur on the dentes, but sometimes also on the tibio-tarsi or on the body, and in certain genera of Symphypleona on top of the head. They may be plain, serrated, or ciliated, and either straight or curved.
Lasiotrichia is a new name I am proposing to differentiate the long, thin, wavy, ciliated sensory hairs from the similar but non-ciliated wavy hairs or bothriotrichia. Bothriotrichia always arise from small cups or mounds on the cuticle, whereas lasiotrichia generally arise direct from the cuticle as do ordinary setae and hairs.
Tricobothria are small sensory cups, domes, or swellings which occur commonly among the Symphypleona. They are situated on the sides of the body and generally give rise to bothriotrichia or short, stiff sensory bristles.
Hypogastrura Bourlet,
Hydropodura Börner,
Podurella Motschulski,
Genotype: Podura aquatica L.,
The family Poduridae is known only from this single genus Podura, which contains one species, Podura aquatica Linné, commonly found on the surface of stagnant water, often in such immense numbers as to form the appearance of a scum over ponds and pools. The designation of P. aquatica L. as the genotype of the genus Podura L. was made by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature at its Paris meeting in
This family name is adopted here pending the final decision of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature concerning the validity of the generic name Hypogastrura Bourlet, Science,
Bagnall, in Tullberginae, gave one of the characters of this sub-family as "the fact that in no position is there more than 1 + 1 pseudocelli." If this character is regarded as valid for the sub-family, it becomes necessary to separate off Tullbergia trisetosa Schaeffer and Tullbergia australica Wom., both of which have 2 + 2 pseudocelli on some segments, together with Clavaphorura septemseta Salmon from New Zealand, into a further new sub-family. As all these species agree in body form, sensory organ of Ant. III, and form of postantennal organ with the rest of the species of the Tullberginae, I do not think such a separation is desirable.
This sub-family name is adopted here pending the final decision of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature concerning the validity of the generic name Hypogastrura Bourlet, Science,
The Oncopoduridae were first recognized as a distinct family by Denis in Cyphoderidae or the Isotomidae, and much confusion has resulted. Bonet in Oncopoduridae is a family.
This name is reverted to here pending the decision of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature regarding the retention on the official list of the genus Anurophorus Nicolet.
This sub-family contains two tribes, the Lepidophorellini Womersley and the Neophorellini Womersley, of which the latter contains one genus only, Neophorella Womersley, Lepidophorellini and Neophorellini are separated as in the key to the families, sub-families, and tribes of the Collembola given in the early part of this work.
This sub-family contains three tribes—Tomocerini Salmon, Novacerini Salmon, and Paratomocerini Salmon—separated as in the key to the families of Collembola in the early part of this work. The tribe Paratomocerini, originally erected as a sub-family, contains only one genus Paratomocerus Tarsia in Curia, Novacerini contains only the one genus, Novacerus Salmon, Neocerus Salmon,
This family contains two genera, separated as follows:—
This sub-family contains two genera only; separated as follows:—
This sub-family contains only the one genus, Actaletes Giard,
Megalothoracidae Börner,
Prosminthurus Willem,
See also Linnaniemi, W. M.
See also Axelson, W. M.