﻿62 



SMITHSONIAX MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



/^ 



Mosquitoes in the interior are exceedingly abundant, as is well known. 

 Especial attention was given to them in collecting, and two species 

 previously undescribed were among the material brought back. It 

 appears, however, that the most troublesome species are the same ones 

 which occur in somewhat less numbers in the Pacific northwest in 

 occasional favorable localities. Horse flies are very numerous in the 

 region at Fairbanks where they are commonly called moose flies since 

 the moose is more common than the horse. 



Fig. 67. — Construction camp at Nenana Bridge, north of Healy, Alaska. 



The common house fly was not found at any point in Alaska. Con- 

 tinuous attention was given to this matter, and collections were made 

 at the garbage dumps in Anchorage and Seward ; while at Ketchican, 

 the southernmost town in Alaska, grocery stores, restaurants and a 

 cannery were carefully examined early in August without finding any 

 of the flies. Other garbage-feeding flies were studied at every pos- 

 sible point and one new species of blow-fly was collected. The absence 

 of several scavenger flies which are common in the United States was 

 noted. 



The exploration of Alaska, especially the interior, from an entomo- 

 logical point of view is important in itself and also forms a link in the 

 study of a much broader problem — that of the entire Holarctic fauna 

 which extends almost continuously around the globe in the vicinity of 



