Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/53

Rh specifically identical with, those obtained by the naturalists of the late North Polar Expedition.

The papers read at this meeting all related to the Arctic Fauna. The first was a "Report on the Insecta (including Arachnida) collected by Captain Feilden and Mr. Hart during the recent Arctic Expedition," by Mr. R M'Lachlan. This specially deals with materials obtained from the parallel stretching from 78° N.; in other words, shows the results of an examination of the Insect fauna of Grinnell Land—that of West Greenland, as far as Disco Island, having already received considerable attention from O. Fabricius, Schiödte, and others; while that of East Greenland has been treated of in the "Report of the Second German North Polar Voyage," The collection made by the 'Polaris' Expedition has not appeared in a connected form. Mr. M'Lachlan's analysis of Capt. Feilden and Mr. Hart's collection runs thus:—Hymenoptera, 5; Coleoptera, 1; Lepidoptera, 13; Diptera, 15; Hemiptera, 1; Mallophaga, 7; Collembola, 3; Araneida, 6; and of Acarida, 6 species; giving a total of 57 species. Bearing in mind these were collected in localities between 78° and 83° N. lat., and that among them are thirty-five specimens of gaily-coloured butterflies and two species of humble bees, it is evident that the insect fauna of this so-called northern "land of Desolation" is after all not so meagre as might have been anticipated. The paucity of the Coleoptera is not a little remarkable, the comparative abundance of the Lepidoptera as striking a feature. In this collection there are no very important novelties, but the marked varieties of certain already known species warrant the suspicion that they represent a local insect fauna. It is stated that many lepidopterous larvae were found in the stomachs of Gulls and Terns shot by members of the Expedition, so that only a small portion can be left to be transformed into the perfect state. Judging from the material which passed through his hands, Mr. M'Lachlan regards it as having an evident affinity with the fauna of Lapland, and he inclines to the belief in a former extensive circumpolar fauna, of which the present is but a lingering remnant.

The second paper read was a "Preliminary Notice on the Surface Fauna of the Arctic Seas, as observed in the recent Arctic Expedition," by Dr. Edward L. Moss, late Surgeon H.M.S. 'Alert.' The author observed that the seas north of the Greenland settlements are subject to such varying conditions at different seasons of the year that their surface fauna cannot be supposed to be very constant. According, however, to what was met with in this voyage, he divides the watery area into three zoological regions:—(a) A district in the latitude of Melville Bay temporarily monopolized by Infusorian Peridinea; (b) a north water region inhabited by Pteropods, certain aberrant Tunicates, Sagitta, and free Hydrozoa; (c) a subglacial region, comparatively azoic, so far as surface life is concerned. Remarks on species captured and other matters altogether form an interesting