PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 31 
specifically identical with, those obtained by the naturalists of the late North 
Polar Expedition. 
The papers read at this meeting all related to the Arctic Fauna. The 
first was a “Report on the Insecta (including Arachnida) collected by 
Captain Feilden and Mr. Hart during the recent Arctic Expedition,” by 
Mr. R. M‘Lachlan. This specially deals with materials obtained from the 
parallel stretching from 78° N.; in other words, shows the results of 
an examination of the Insect fauna of Grinnell Land—that of West Green- 
land, as far as Disco Island, having already received considerable attention 
from O. Fabricius, Schiddte, and others; while that of East Greenland has 
been treated of in the ‘“‘ Report of the Second German North Polar Voyage,” 
The collection made by the ‘ Polaris’ Expedition has not appeared in a 
connected form. Mr. M‘Lachlan’s analysis of Capt. Feilden and Mr. Hart’s 
collection runs thus :—Hymenoptera, 5; Coleoptera, 1; Lepidoptera, 13; 
Diptera, 15; Hemiptera, 1; Mallophaga, 7; Collembola, 3; Araneida, 6; 
and of Acarida, 6 species; giving a total of 57 species. Bearing in mind 
these were collected in localities between 78° and 83° N. lat., and that 
among them are thirty-five specimens of gaily-coloured butterflies and two 
species of humble bees, it is evident that the insect fauna of this so-called 
northern “land of Desolation” is after all not so meagre as might have been 
anticipated. The paucity of the Coleoptera is not a little remarkable, the 
comparative abundance of the Lepideptera as striking a feature. In this 
collection there are no very important novelties, but the marked varieties of 
certain already known species warrant the suspicion that they represent a 
local insect fauna. It is stated that many lepidopterous larve were found 
in the stomachs of Gulls and Terns shot by members of the Expedition, so 
that only a small portion can be left to be transformed into the perfect 
state. Judging from the material which passed through his hands, Mr. 
M‘Lachlan regards it as having an evident affinity with the fauna of Lap- 
land, and he inclines to the belief in a former extensive circumpolar fauna, 
of which the present is but a lingering remnant. 
The second paper read was a “ Preliminary Notice on the Surface Fauna 
of the Arctic Seas, as observed in the recent Arctic Expedition,” by Dr. 
Edward L. Moss, late Surgeon H.M.S. ‘ Alert.’ The author observed that 
the seas north of the Greenland settlements are subject to such varying 
conditions at different seasons of the year that their surface fauna cannot 
be supposed to be very constant.- According, however, to what was met 
with in this voyage, he divides the watery area into three zoological 
regions :—(a) A district in the latitude of Melville Bay temporarily mono- 
polized by Infusorian Peridinea; (b) a north water region inhabited by 
Pteropods, certain aberrant Tunicates, Sagitta, and free Hydrozoa; (c) a 
subglacial region, comparatively azoic, so far as surface life is concerned. 
Remarks on species captured and other matters altogether form an interesting 
