40 Fritz Johansen and I. C. Nielsen. 



tributed, so that it fills the clefts and lies in mounds round the 

 large stones whilst the more sheltered places are entirely or partially 

 bare, it is very difficult to find the hibernating lepidopterous larvae 

 (Anarta etc.) even in the grass tufts and Dryas beds, which are not 

 covered by snow. According to all the observations I have made 

 on the hibernating lepidopterous larvae, it is almost exclusively on 

 the parts of the low land which are driest, free of snow and lie 

 high (and in consequence with but little vegetation), that луе find 

 the animals. Here in Denmark we are accustomed to find them on 

 plant-covered ground, and il takes some time to realize that the 

 conditions in Greenland seem to be precisely the opposite. I have 

 searched through large tracts with heather, moss etc., without finding 

 more than quite a few larvae, but if I disturbed a solitary grass 

 tuft standing on a gravelly, naked spot, 1 could be almost always 

 certain of finding what I sought for. The same was the case when 

 I turned over flat stones on naked ground or ground with vegetation 

 on it. As pointed out by Deichmann ^ this condition is due to the 

 larvae preferring places where there is most promise of escaping the 

 water from the melting snow. That the larvae never pay any atten- 

 tion to the protection a covering layer of snow can afford them 

 against the cold, is likewise a characteristic feature and indicates a 

 peculiar hardiness on the part of these animals. I may here quote 

 from my Journal regarding the discovery of such a hibernating 

 larva. "Found to day a naked Anarta larva (ca. 3 cm.) in a tuft of 

 Dryas octopetala. The plant was almost free of snow and the larva 

 was only half hidden in this, the head and front part of the body 

 sticking down among the small twigs whilst the abdomen was bent 

 and hung free in the air. The animal was frozen stiff and did not 

 move when touched; the ground under the tuft was stony and hard 

 frozen, there being a little ice between the leaves of the plant and 

 on the body of the larva. I placed it in a box and when I reached 

 the ship shortly after and took it from my pocket the larva was 

 almost thawed. I watched how it gradually came to life; first it 

 lay on its side and waved the body slowly backwards and forwards; 

 then it turned over on to its belly and took hold on the bottom of 

 the box with its hindmost grasping feet; slow and spasmodic con- 

 tractions or waves passed along the body; finally, it fixed the other 

 grasping feet and the thorasic legs and moved slowly away in the 

 normal manner. The temperature that evening was — 16^2° (^/5 07). 

 I tried to hatch out the larva and a week later it began to spin a 

 cocoon, some threads being found under its belly. Two days later. 



'Meddelelser om Grönland' XIX. Copenhagen 1895, p. 101. 



