The application of numerical techniques to insect assemblages from the site of Stóraborg, Iceland

Thatch, Turves and Floor Deposits: a Survey of Coleoptera in Materials from Abandoned Hebridean Blackhouses and the implications for their Visibility in the Archaeological Record

“…For example the building floors at post-Mediaeval Storaborg (Perry et al, 1985) and Reykolt (Buckland et al, 1992), Iceland, and also a number of insect faunas from deep urban deposits, for example at the Roman General Accident site and the Anglo-Scandinavian sites of Lloyds Bank and Coppergate, York (Kenward, 1978;Hall et al, 1983;Hall & Kenward, 1990), bear a superficial resemblance to those presented here.…”

Species Associations Among Insect Remains from Urban Archaeological Deposits and their Significance in Reconstructing the Past Human Environment

“…Other statistical work on archaeological insects has mostly concentrated on classifying sample assemblages (e.g. Strudwick, 1979;Perry, 1981;Perry, Buckland & Snaesdottir, 1985), rather than elucidating relationships between their component species. Discriminant function analysis was used by Hill (1993), and correspondence analysis by Cong & Ashworth (1997).…”

A failed invader in the North Atlantic, the case of Aglenus brunneus Gyll. (Col., Colydiidae), a blind flightless beetle from Iceland

“…), with the mycetophagid Typhaea stercorea (L.) are characteristic of fairly dry mouldy hay, and occur in large numbers in barns and hay stores at the present day, although there appears to have been some changes in overall species frequency as a result of changes in farming practice over the past century , in particular the move towards a grass, rather than sedge dominated hay has resulted in higher temperatures of decay in storage and hence changes in the nature of the mould assemblage and its associated invertebrate feeders. Compared with this assemblage and the more extensive ones from post-medieval Stóraborg in Eyjafjallasveit (Perry et al 1985) for example, modern faunas appear to contain more cryptophagids and T. stercorea has become comparatively rare; none of the modern faunas sampled showed such overwhelming numbers of C. elongata. It is possible that all the specimens ascribed to L. minutus (grp) belong to the following species L. pseudominutus, but firm identification relies upon the recovery of mesosterna, and modern specimens sent to Enid Tozer, who noted the separation of three species standing under one name in England (Tozer 1973), from a barn at the now abandoned farm at Björnskot in Eyjafjallasveit were identified as including both L. minutus L. and L. pseudominutus (Strand); Ó lafsson (1991) also records L. anthracinus (Mann.)…”