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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 July 2009
Among various insects collected on behalf of the Entomological Research Committee by Dr. R. W. Gray in Southern Nigeria, a large number of minute Collembola, all belonging to the same species, and taken at Benin City on June 9th, 1910, have been sent to me for identification. So little is known of Tropical African Collembola, that no surprise could be felt when the insect proved to belong to an undescribed species. Dr. Gray gives no information as to the kind of locality in which this springtail was found, or whether it was in any way injurious. In Europe, however, in recent years, students of economic zoology have come, more and more, to recognise that many species of Collembola feed on living plant tissues1 as well as on the decaying vegetable and animal refuse which forms the usual food of their order. It seems fitting therefore that an account of the insect should be published in this Bulletin, if only to call the attention of entomologists working in Tropical Africa to the scientific interest, and probable economic importance of springtails.
1 Theobald, F. V.. “‘Springtails’ (Collembola). Their economic importance, with notes on some unrecorded instances of damage.” ler Congrés International d'Entomqlogie (Bruxelles, 1910), vol. ii, pp. 1–18, pis. i.-iiiGoogle Scholar. Also in “Report on Economic Zoology” for year ending September 30th, 1910, S. E. Agricultural College, Wye.
2 Börner, C., “Neue altweltliche Collembolen, nebst Bemerkungen zur Systematik der Isotominen und Entomobryinen,” Sitzsb. Gesellsch. Naturforsch. Freunde, Berlin, 1903, pp. 129–182.Google Scholar
3 Börner, C., “Collembolen aus Ostafrika, Madagascar und Südamerika” (in Voeltzkow's Reise in Ost-Afrika, Bd. ii.), Stuttgart, 1907.Google Scholar
4 Wahlgren, E., “Apterygoten aus Aegypten und dem Sudan” (in Results of the Swedish Zoological Expedition to Egypt and the White Nile, 1901), Upsala, 1906.Google Scholar