The following lists of Neuroptera, in the broad sense, occurring in Cambridgeshire, are based on a MS. Catalogue by the late Rev. L. Jenyns, and on collections made in the county by Mr Geo. T. Porritt and myself, the authority in each case being indicated by the respective initials. In Mr Jenyns' catalogue the names given are those of Stephens; accordingly, in his case, the accuracy of the records depends on his having correctly identified Stephens' species as represented by the latter author's types determined by Mr McLachlan.

There seems to be no good ground however for concluding that any of the species here recorded have not occurred in the county.

TRICHOPTERA

Phryganea grandis, L. Near Ely (J).

Phryganea striata, L. Near Ely (J); Thorney (M).

Phryganea varia, F. Cambridge and elsewhere (J); Wicken (P).

Agrypnia pagetana, Curt. Near Thorney (J and M); Wicken (P).

Colpotaulius incisus, Curt. Bottisham and Ely (J); Thorney (M); Wicken (P).

Grammotaulius nitidus, Müller. Thorney (M); Wicken (P).

Grammotaulius atomarius, F. Bottisham and Ely (J); Thorney (M).

Glyphotaelius pellucidus, Retz. Bottisham and Ely (J); Thorney (M); Wicken (P).

Limnophilus rhombicus, L. Bottisham and Ely (J); Wicken (P).

Limnophilus flavicornis, F. Bottisham and Ely (J); Wicken (P).

Limnophilus marmoratus, Curt. Not uncommon.

Limnophilus lunatus, Curt. Ely, Cambridge and Bottisham (J).

Limnophilus vittatus, F. Ely, Cambridge and Bottisham (J).

Limnophilus affinis, Curt. Ely, Cambridge and Bottisham (J); Thorney (M).

Cambridgeshire, to the general collector, is somewhat uninteresting, being but a moderate sized county, very flat, and considerably cultivated, but is of course redeemed by the Fens, which support many rare and local insects. These are the remnants of very much larger marshy areas, which formerly occupied the whole of the district, and the species that haunt them have naturally been driven and condensed into this smaller space, and, indeed, may be compared to Hereward the Wake, holding it as their last stronghold. Although one or two species, which will he dealt with later, seem to have disappeared before drainage, as in the case of the Great Copper in the Lepidoptera, the majority of the fen-dwellers still survive at Wicken and other localities, and some are now only found there in Britain. The following notes only deal with the more local and rare species, and those of the purely fen-insects.

To commence with the Geodephaga, or Ground-beetles, the rare variety consitus of Carabus monilis has been taken at Wicken, and Carabus granulatus is common in the fens on paths, and under cut herbage, etc. Wollaston records a dozen specimens of the local Calosoma inquisitor as being once taken by a gentleman at Gamlingay. Blethisa multipunctata, which occurs in marshy places, on the mud at the edges of pools and so on, is recorded from the Cambridgeshire Fens, as also the rare Elaphrus uliginosus.

From the point of view of the student of vertebrate palaeontology Cambridge is an unusually interesting county, since it contains two deposits which are practically unique, although one extends to a certain degree into the adjacent counties. The first of these two deposits is the one at Barrington, yielding mammalian remains of Pleistocene age, remarkable for their perfect state of preservation and for the numbers in which they occur. It is this fine state of preservation and numerical abundance of the remains, coupled with the peculiar nature of the rock in which they are buried, which entitles the Barrington deposit to be called unique, for the species of mammals it contains are not different from those found elsewhere.

The second and more noteworthy fossiliferous deposit is the coprolite band of the Cambridge Greensand, which was so extensively worked for phosphates in the second third of the last century, but is now practically exhausted. From this deposit during the time that the coprolite diggings were in full swing vast quantities of vertebrate remains were secured by various energetic collectors, the greater number of which are preserved in the Cambridge Geological Museum. Unfortunately these remains are for the most part very fragmentary and much rolled and water-worn, so that their determination and association is generally a matter of extreme difficulty. But this is by no means the only unfortunate circumstance connected with these remains.

The Diptera are for many reasons by far the most difficult Order to deal with in making a complete account of the characteristic fauna of any particular county, and Cambridgeshire is no exception to the rule.

The number of collectors of Diptera in England is very small, and those who study them may almost be reckoned on the fingers of one's hands, while the number of those who have correctly named their captures and published any Lists is smaller still; consequently our knowledge of the distribution of species in England is very slight, and a species may have been considered local, or rare, merely because it has never been collected, or if collected has not been named and recorded, from any other locality. It is very probable that the species of Diptera are more widely distributed in England than any other Order and that it is only a question of looking for them in the right places.

In this account of the Cambridgeshire Diptera it is proposed to divide the county into two districts, viz.:

1. The Northern or Fen District; including practically all that part of the county north of Newmarket and Cambridge.

2. The Southern District.

By this means we make it easier to refer to those Diptera occurring in the Fens, among which there is greater probability of species being confined to Cambridgeshire only, or occurring in numbers in that county and rare elsewhere, because in no other English county is there such another piece of original undrained fenland as is found at Wicken.

In a survey of the Crustacea of Cambridge and its neighbourhood, we have at the outset our task greatly lightened by the inland situation of the town.

The great majority of the members of the group are inhabitants of the sea, a certain proportion inhabit fresh water, and a minority are adapted for a life upon land. It follows then that, of the immense number and variety of forms which together constitute the group, we have but comparatively few to take into consideration. The common crab or lobster, typical representatives of the class, are of course marine, and we are left with forms the majority of which are quite small, often almost microscopic.

While there is no reason to suppose that the terrestrial Crustacea are strikingly different from those common in other parts of our island, the fresh-water types from Cambridge, surrounded as it is by the old fen country, might well be numerous and interesting. Unfortunately we have here to face a great lack of information. It is indeed remarkable that a district containing a great University should have been so little exploited, at least in this direction, but the fact remains. Almost the only work of reference is a manuscript “Catalogue of the Insect Fauna of Cambridgeshire” by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns (afterwards Blomefield), which he presented to the Cambridge University Museum in 1868.

RHOPALOCERA

Although Cambridgeshire cannot be considered a good butterfly county, yet with records made in the earlier part of last century, most of which are quite reliable, a list might be formed comprising some sixty species, which is within half-a-dozen of the complete British list; at the present time however it would not be easy to find more than thirty-five species.

Most important of these, the Swallow-tailed butterfly, Papilio machaon, L., still exists in considerable numbers in Wicken Fen, but it is no longer found in the surrounding fens and north of Ely, where it was plentiful fifty or sixty years ago. Aporia crataegi, L., probably, and Leucophasia sinapsis, L. certainly occurred in the woods near Gamlingay in the time of Jenyns, the latter not uncommonly; it was taken there by Prof. Babington as late as 1835. Pieris daplidice, L., has been frequently taken, but not recently, on the chalk between Cambridge and Newmarket. In years notable for a visitation of “Clouded yellows,” the two species of Colias, C. edusa, Fb., and C. hyale, L., have been taken in most parts of the county, but nowhere in such abundance as on the chalk in the south-east. There are records for all the “Fritillaries,” of which the two small species of Argynnis, A. selene, Schiff., and A. euphrosyne, L., may still occur at Gamlingay; A. aglia, L. was common in Bottisham and the adjacent fens, up to thirty years ago, and Melitaea aurinia, Rott. also occurred in various parts of the fens, but has not been recently recorded.