The relationship between the palaearctic and near die faunas 



267 



(From HoLDHAUS, 1924.) 



FIG. 41. Distribution of the Weevil Otiorrhynchus arcticus O. Fbr., a flightless, 

 sluggish, soil-bound insect with bisexual reproduction, and therefore not easily- 

 spread. The larva is subterraneous and feeds, like the imago, on various plants. 

 Crosses = subfossils, earlier than Postglacial. 



reached Greenland (p. 263) no Palaearctic species, as far as is known, have arrived 

 in Baffin Island from the opposite direction. 



To my mind, only two possibilities remain which, separately or by joint action, 

 may account for the dominance of Palaearctic, in part strictly European, species in 

 the faunas of Iceland and Greenland. 



In the first place, transport with man may be responsible. Actually, voices have 

 been raised to the effect that practically the entire lower terrestrial fauna of Iceland 

 {vide Lindroth, 193 1, p. 507) and the European element of the Greenlandic fauna 

 and flora (Stephensen, 1921; Ostenfeld, 1926; Jensen, 1928) were introduced with 

 the early Norse colonists and it cannot be doubted that human transport from 

 Europe has played an important role in the composition of the fauna of these 

 islands. 



As far as Coleoptera are concerned, I have tried to exclude from the list above 

 (table 7) all species for which this may be true, according to their choice of habitat 

 &c., but it is of course by no means impossible that other species also, not at all 

 connected with human culture, may have been brought over, by pure chance, for 

 instance, in the Greenlandic fauna: Atheta fungi Gv . (6o°59'-6i°i3'), Lathrobium 

 fulvipenne Gr. (only one specimen known), Quedius boops Gr. (6o''-62°), and 

 Scymnus limonii Donis. (3 specimens in the extreme south), which are not found 

 north of the old Norse colonization area (for this, vide "Atlas", 1921). * 



