LATE LAND CONNECTIONS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC AREA 



83 



The locating of the Icelandic Wiirm-refugia has been a matter of some con- 

 troversy. Botanists (e.g. Steindorsson, 1954) have paid most attention to the 

 isolated occurrences of certain Arctic-Subarctic plants in the northern 

 parts of the island and, consequently, placed most of the refugia there. This 

 seems to be supported also by geological data (cf. map by Einarsson, 1961, 

 p. 44). The terrestrial fauna, however, shows a clear concentration of flightless 



Fig. 6. Percentage of indigenous flightless Coleoptera in different parts of Iceland. 



Dimorphic species counted, if occurring in the short-winged form. 

 Three species, found isolated in the north, are omitted since regarded as transported 

 by man: Trechus obtiisus Er., Othius melanocephalus Gr., Apion cruentatuin Walt. 



or otherwise not easily dispersed forms in the south and the southeast. For 

 that reason, I have earlier (Lindroth, 1931, p. 481, etc.) tried to locate the 

 two main faunal Wiirm-refugia to the surroundings of Eyjafjallajokull and 

 Hornafjordur, respectively. 



The distribution of flightless Coleoptera in dilferent districts of Iceland is 

 illustrated here (Fig. 6). The two main features are: (1) the high proportion of 

 the said element in the south and, as could be expected, notably in the 

 southeast; and (2) the very low figure for the northeast. This is remarkable, 

 since botanists have claimed several refugia in this area (Einarsson, 1961). It 

 seems to be another proof of the fact that the "botanical refugia" in the north 



