260 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



Brook, much less that of Newfoundland, i)ut my general impres- 

 sion was that of a fauna poor in species, not only of insects, but of 

 other animal groups. The evidence for this seemed to be fairly 

 definite as regards the Orthoptera, and it is well-known to be 

 true of some of the vertebrate groups. There are no native reptiles 

 nor Amphibia in Newfoundland, and many of the characteristic 

 Canadian mammals are absent, e.g., the Moose, Wapiti, Brown 

 Bear (Ursus richardsoivi), the Sciurida^, or scjuirrel family, etc. 

 In the small streams I saw only trout and stickleback; no minnows, 

 nor other Cyprinoids, and no crayfish. 



The absence of these animals, or some of them, has been ex- 

 plained r.s a result of the Glacial Period, during which Newfound- 

 land, already separate from the continent of North America, was 

 independently glaciated or partially covered by an ice-sheet of 

 its own. As a result, its fauna has been in large measure extermin- 

 ated, instead of being pushed farther south, as on the mainland, 

 and the re-establishment of such exterminated species on the 

 return of favourable conditions has been in many cases impossible. 



A faunistic study of Newfoundland is a great desideratum, 

 cspecialK' oi those groups of animals to whose natural means of 

 distribution a short distance over sea acts as a barrier. ^Such, 

 for example, are flightless insects, or those incapable of sustained 

 flight, e.g., many Orthoptera, most vertebrates except birds, 

 exclusively fresh-water fishes, the larger Crustacea, land and 

 fresh-water Mollusca, etc. It is among these same groups, except 

 the IMoUusca, that we have already noted evidence of a paucity 

 of species. As regards the Mollusca, I have practically no data 

 at hand. I found a few land and fresh-water forms, including a 

 single Mussel {Anodonta sp.), which was common in Beaver Pond, 

 a few fresh-water snails, such as the common Planorbis campan- 

 idatus, and a few land forms, of which the large Succinea ovalis 

 was very plentiful. I also picked up Pyramidula cronkhitei anthonyi, 

 a little striated form common almost everywhere in Canada, 

 Agrioliviax agrestis, a common garden slug, introduced from 

 Europe, and Helix hortensis. This last form, already recorded 

 from Newfoundland by Prof. Cockerell, is a species of very inter- 

 esting distribution, occuring on the eastern coast of North America 



