Cave cricket. Photo by Dylan van Winkel.
collections. All were too small to be identified. Remaining Orthoptera results are reported separately by Michael Driessen (see Driessen, this volume).
Insecta: Thysanoptera
Insecta: Psocoptera
Groups conspicuously absent
Psocopterans (barklice or booklice) were mainly captured in pitfalls and bashing samples. Most pitfall specimens were of a single species collected at site P5 (grass on sand dunes). Specimens collected by bashing are likely to be more diverse. Psocoptera were especially numerous in bashings at SB7, in which they were the most common order collected.
Some groups of terrestrial invertebrates that might have been expected on PSI were not recorded at all. The absences of flatworms, earthworms, leeches and slugs in the samples may have been a result of the very dry conditions at the time of our visit. Both flatworms and introduced slugs were seen abundantly on Flinders Island during
Thrips were rare in pitfall traps but very common in bashing samples. Diversity has not yet been assessed.
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the same trip, but Flinders Island clearly experienced more rain than PSI during the time of our stay. Other groups not recorded included silverfish, symphylans, onychophorans (habitat probably unsuitable), and most insect groups dependent on fresh water for some stage of their life cycle. Possibly some of the groups not found in this survey would be found with more targeted searching on the island, perhaps during wetter conditions.