FNZ 9 - Protura (Insecta) - Introduction
Tuxen, SL 1986. Protura (Insecta). Fauna of New Zealand 9, 52 pages.
(
ISSN 0111-5383 (print),
;
no.
09.
ISBN 0-477-06765-4 (print),
).
Published 24 Feb 1986
ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/6B017956-58FF-4405-9795-98BA1D6FE682
Introduction
Before this study was undertaken, only very little was known about the proturan fauna of New Zealand. R. J. Tillyard (1925) was the first to mention the group in a New Zealand journal. He made a curious error, however, confounding Genova (Genoa) in Italy with Guinea in West Africa, even to mentioning the species Acerentomon doderoi Silvestri under the name guineense, which later caused some confusion. He supposed the Protura to be present in New Zealand, perhaps existing as especially large forms, but did not mention any findings.
The next author to refer to New Zealand Protura was G. H. Satchell (1952), who in a short note mentioned that B. J. Marples had collected in the Otago Museum garden some ten specimens belonging to the family Acerentomidae. I have not been able to locate these specimens. In the same year B. Conde described Eosentomon dawsoni from Little Barrier Island, on the basis of one female and one juvenile specimen. They were redescribed by Tuxen (1964, p. 123), and were studied again for this contribution.
Finally, H. Pauline McColl (1975) mentioned thirteen specimens from Kaitoke, near Wellington, but I have not been able to locate these either.
The present survey is based on a large holding of material in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Auckland; on twenty-nine specimens from the National Museum of New Zealand, Wellington; and on forty-two slides from the Department of Entomology, Lincoln College, Canterbury.