A JOURNEY TO FINMARK. 21 



had found under a stone in the Botanical Garden therein April. 

 From Christiania we took our journey homewards by Copen- 

 hagen, and reached Germany all well at the end of x\ugust. 



The insect wealth of Finmark, and specially of the Alten 

 district, corresponds to the richness of the Flora, though pro- 

 bably not in the proportion which the known insects of the 

 globe bear to the known plants. I only found one species 

 of Orthoptej'a, eight species of Ilerjiiptera (according to the 

 determination of Professor v. Baerensprung : Trapezonotus 

 agrestis, Fall., Eremocoris erraticuSf F., Erem, plebejufij 

 Fall., Ni/siiis Thymi, Fall., Aradus depressus, F., A. lu- 

 gubris, Fall., Salda saltatoria, L., and one Salda, nov. 

 sp?). I also observed several Homoptera. The Diptera 

 appear to be rather numerous in species, though we only 

 collected a few of them. But we had to suffer much from 

 them. The gnats were indeed a veritable land plague from 

 the middle of June to the end of July, and they often oc- 

 curred in such quantities, that an Englishman assured us, 

 *' he had written his name with his stick in a swarm of 

 gnats, and it remained visible for some seconds." At any 

 rate, they often hindered us when catching Lepidoptera. The 

 gnats pursued us most furiously on the Fjelds, where we 

 were the only living beings by which they could quencli 

 their thirst for blood, since the rein-deer Lapps do not pas- 

 ture their herds there in summer. Of Hijmenoptera we 

 only captured a few species, although this order appears to 

 be rather numerously represented there in species. But the 

 ants were extraordinarily numerous — they were to be met 

 with on the ground everywhere in the lower localities, and 

 they there destroyed many larvag and pupae. I certainly 

 believe I observed at least four or five species of ants. Of 

 the Neuroptera, the Phryganidce were especially rich in 

 species ; we also took two or three species of large dragon 



