221 



IX. INSECT A. 



APTERA. 



COLLEMBOLA. 

 By GEOEGE H. CARPENTER, B.Sc. Lond., 



(Fla-e XLVII.) 



The presence of at least one species of springtail on the Antarctic 

 Continent is not the least interestinir fact established through the 

 voyage of the ' Southern Cross.'' Eight specimens of an Isotoma were 

 collected on Geikie Land at the head of Robertson Bay (about 

 71° 40' S. Lat., 169° 50' E. Long.) in the month of November, 1899, 

 by Dr. Klovstad, who found the insects among lichens when engaged 

 in a botanical expedition.^ Springtails are fairly numerous in the 

 Arctic regions, as many as sixty-one species being recorded in the 

 recent comprehensive summary of Schaffer.^ Among these the genus 

 Isotoma is predominant, sixteen of the sixty-one species belonging 

 to it. It is of interest that the first discovered Antarctic springtail 

 should prove to be an Isotoma, especially as the genus has been 

 traced into the southern hemisphere only during the last few years. 

 The insects were mounted as microscopic preparations in balsam 

 shortly after their capture. Unfortunately, the delicate integumeut 

 of springtails renders them very liable to shrivel in such a medium, 

 and all the specimens are more or less distorted. But from the 

 number of slides available, it has been possible to make out all the 

 principal structural features of the insect. Isotoma is readily 



^ C. E. Borchgrevink, ' First on the Antarctic Continent,' London (1901), 

 pp. 231-2. 



^ C. Schaffer, ' Die Arktischen und Sub-Arktischen CoUembola,' in Romer and 

 Schaudinn's ' Fauna Arctica,' Jena (1900), pp.- 237-258, 



