of non-miyratory Insects. 185 
Sr. GorHARD. 
‘¢ T well remember, at the head of the pass during the month of May, to 
have been forcibly struck by the great accumulation of insect-life at the 
bottom of some rounded depressions in the snow, which had melted so as 
to expose the soil beneath it, thus, forming as it were, black oases amidst 
an ocean of unsullied white. They were chiefly Coleoptera.” (T. V. Wol- 
laston, Zoologist, 1866, p. 313. and compare this paper for arguments pro 
and con. the alpine origin of the insects in question.) 
TIMBL. 
(Passeier Grund.) 
Ascending the heights towards the glacier, between 5900-8000, Apho- 
dius discus is met with, “and on my second journey when I intentionally 
searched the snow-field, I found it strewn over with them in great 
numbers, if not carried there by whirlwinds, as I am inclined to sup- 
pose by the many Noctue, Diptera, and a Calopus serraticornis struggling 
with death, which were lying about.’ P. V Gredler, ‘ Verhandl. etc., 
des siebenbiirg Vereins fiir Naturwissensch.’ 1856, No. 2. 
CARINTHIAN ALPS. 
“ F, Low published (Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. in Wien, xvii. pp. 751-752) a 
note on the species of Insects found on the snow in Carinthia (elevation 
2700-3400) by R. Kaiser, in the winters of 1858, 1861, and 1862. The 
number of species is small, but included a new Homalota (H. glacia- 
lis, Mill.); two species of Nabis occurred, and Achorutes mwrorwm in great 
quantities.” (‘ Zool. Record,’ 1867, p. 204.) 
Without prejudicing the question, how many or how 
few of the observations mentioned in this table, refer to 
insects peculiar to the neighbourhood of the snow-fields 
and glaciers on which they were found, I think it will be 
allowed for each individual instance, that ascending cur- 
rents of air, or whirlwinds, such as often happen in 
mountain regions, were the main causes of their reach- 
ing their inhospitable and, probably, last resting-places. 
But the winds which deposited them there, might have 
carried them beyond the respective mountains, and 
might have allowed them to settle in more comfortable 
quarters; and if these premises are granted, then my 
object of proving the forced dispersal of non-migratory 
Articulata by atmospheric agencies is reached. 
Most of the facts collected in this paper refer to the 
dissemination of living insects in continental Europe 
only, but it stands to reason, that if my conclusions are 
correct as regards continents, the modus operandi of 
Nature will be often a similar one as regards the popu- 
lating of islands. Only, of course, the chances of life for 
castaways are in this case much lessened ; not because 
their chances on arrival are worse, but because they pro- 
bably often find a watery grave before reaching land. 
