42 Fritz Johansen and I. C. Nielsen. 



piants stick up and the earlier half-hidden rocks and larger stones 

 stand out bare. The numerous water-courses still lie bound under 

 their ice-cover and the only water seen is in the holes lormed by 

 the sun round about the seaweed frozen into the sea ice. At this 

 time the first insects of the year are seen; if the weather is calm 

 and sunny, one is surprised by the buzzing of a blow-fly (Calliphora 

 groenkmdica) round about the tent and if we approach the side of 

 a fell where there is shelter, we find other Dipters, sometimes 

 flying about, at others resting for a moment. Examining the 

 ground we become aware of a spider which quickly conceals itself 

 in the withered grass, and more are found in the crevices of the 

 rocks, under stones and such like, where they first simulate death, 

 but soon show themselves to be fully alive to the coming of summer. 

 If we happen to be near a bank of sand, we notice a number of 

 small holes with the small, red mites (Trombidium) crawling in 

 and out of them — but only when the sun is shining. No other 

 "insects" are to be seen at this time (first half of May), unless we 

 take the trouble of investigating the tufts of grass and turn over 

 the stones; then we find the larvae of the hibernating butter- 

 flies; for example, if it is a Dryas plant, we find the larvae lying 

 imder the outermost branches and twigs, which are prostrate on the 

 ground; it is driest here and the action of the sun is strongest on 

 this part of the plant. That the larvae are awake from their winter 

 sleep can be seen by their movements on being touched, some of 

 them indeed were clinging fast to the under side of the branches. 

 The first of them come out in the latter half of May, chiefly the 

 Anarta and Dasychira larvae; and whilst the former mainly sit on 

 the Dryas tufts, the latter greedily gnaw the fresh willow buds and 

 the rosettes of leaves of Saxifraga oppositi folia. The temperature at 

 noon is about freezing point, but in the warming rays of the sun 

 the snow-free parts of the ground are some degrees higher. The 

 larvae do not crawl very far, partly because they have enough to 

 do in feeding after the long winter sleep, partly because they need 

 not yet fear the water from the melting snow. — If we go now to 

 the freshwater lakes, we find here also that the animal life has 

 begun to wake up close to the banks where the ice has melted, and 

 even if a thin layer of ice is formed at nights, it does not interfere 

 with the movements of the animals here. If there is only a few 

 centimeters of water, we find the small, red larvae of the water- 

 mites (Hydrachna) seeking their prey, and numerous larvae of gnats 

 of various size and species move about over the soft muddy bottom, 

 sometimes making swift leaps from side to side and then running 

 a little (Culex), sometimes crawling (Tanypus'^) like Geo/7je/ra-larvae. 



