Other groups

Many more invertebrates are part of the Scottish fauna, some very abundant but little known because they are small, others often overlooked because they live underground or hidden behind a tree bark or among foliage. These include:

• Millipedes and Centipedes (Myriapods)
• Woodlice and Waterlice (Isopods)
• Bristletails (Thysanura and Diplura)
• Springtails (Collembola)
• Lice (Mallophaga and Anoplura)
• Grasshoppers (Orthoptera)
• True bugs (Hemiptera)
• Earwigs (Dermaptera)
• Lacewings, alderflies and Snake flies (Neuroptera)  

Never underestimate the invertebrates, they make up nearly all of the animal life in Scotland.  And they have been here a long time.  There are fossil myriapod (giant centipede) tracks in Scotland on Arran, at Crail in Fife  and on Skye.  Those in Fife date from the lower Carboniferous period about 350 million years ago.  The Rhynie Chert  , found near the Scottish village of Rhynie, is one of world's most exciting fossil beds of the first plants about 410 million years old.  It has springtails (and mites) like those found in decaying leaves today in modern woods.