Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/329

Rh smaller scales, shorter fins, and a less number of pyloric appendages. Several specimens were procured in the Victoria Lake (lat. 82° 84' N.), and in fresh-water lakes near Floeberg Beach (lat. 82° 28' N.). The fish which has been named after Sir George Nares is a small one, the largest specimen obtained measuring only ten inches in length. Several were caught in a freshwater lake near the winter- quarters of the 'Discovery.'

The chief interest attaching to the Mollusca obtained during the Arctic Expedition arises from the collections having been made at localities further north than any which had been previously investigated. The specimens brought home have all been identified by Mr. Edgar Smith, of the British Museum, who has made the Mollusca his special study, and a new species, Trichotropis tenuis, has been found amongst them. A description of this shell, with a figure, is given on page 226. A single specimen only was found, in twenty-five fathoms, off Cape Louis Napoleon, Grinnell Land (lat. 79° 38' N.), by Capt. Feilden.

The entomological collections brought home from between the parallels of 78° and 83° N. latitude, showed quite unexpected and, in some respects, astonishing results. In all, there are about forty- five species of true Tnsecta and sixteen Arachnida. Of the former five pertain to Hymenoptera, one to Coleoptera, thirteen to Lepidoptera, fifteen to Diptera, one to Hemiptera, seven to Mallophaga, and three to Collembola. Of the Arachnida six are true spiders and ten are mites. These were all placed in the hands of Mr. R. M'Lachlan for examination, and with the assistance of Baron von Osten-Sacken, the Rev. O. P. Cambridge and the late Mr. Andrew Murray, a careful report has been drawn up (Appendix, pp. 234 — 239). Mr. M'Lachlan has no hesitation in saying that the most valuable of all the zoological collections brought home by the Arctic Expedition are those belonging to the entomological section ; for they prove the existence of a comparatively rich insect fauna, and even of several species of showy butterflies, in very high latitudes. Amongst the Insecta is a new ichneumon ; and two new butterflies and four new spiders are described. The only species of Coleoptera in the collection is represented by one example of the brachelytrous Quedius fulgidus from Discovery Bay, a very widely distributed insect, common in Britain. The paucity of insects of this order, as Mr. M'Lachlan observes, is inexplicable.