ON ACAEI COLLECTED AT CAPE FLORA. 355 



Eepoet on the Acaei collected by Mr. H. Fishier, Naturalist of 

 the Jacksou-Harmsworth Polar Expedition, at Cape Plora, 

 Northbrook Island, Franz- Josef Archipelago, in 1896. By 

 A. D. Michael, F.L.S., F.Z.S., E.E.M.S., &c. 



[Bead 17th June, 1897.] 

 (Plate 21.) 



This collection was formed by Mr. Fisher under very great 

 difficulties during the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition. It is 

 necesciarily a small one, and consists of five species only : two of 

 these are probably new to science. The most striking features of 

 the collection are the entire absence of anything whicb can be 

 considered as a specialized local fauna, and the close agreement or 

 relationship between the species collected and those familiar to 

 aracbnologists as inhabiting Central and even Southern Europe, 

 and sometimes extending far beyond European boundaries ; thus 

 affording an excellent example of the extremely wide distribution 

 of these minute creatures. The same remarks may be made 

 respecting every collection of Acari hitherto made in high 

 northern latitudes, although none have been recorded from so far 

 north as those obtained by Mr. Fisher ; but collections of Acarij 

 chiefly very small, have been described from Greenland *, Corn- 

 wallis Island t, Spitzbergen and Bear Island J, Jan Mayen 

 Island §, Behring Straits &c.||, Icelander, and Siberia and 

 Novaya Zemlya **, &c. 



One species in the collection, " Glyciphagus domesticus^^ 

 swarms in houses in England, in flour, dried fruits, &c. ; so 

 much so that I at first thought it might have been introduced by 

 the Expedition in their stores ; but Mr. Fisher assures me that 

 the place where it was found was far away from their camp, and 



* O. Fabricius, 'Fauna Groenlandica,' &c., Hafnise et Lipsiaa, 1770. Thorell 

 in Ofvers. K. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 1872, p. 147. 



t White, in Sutherland's ' Journal of a Voyage in BafEn's Bay and Barrow's 

 Straits,' London, 1852. 



X Thorell, in Ofvers. K. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 1871, p. 683. Trouessart in Mem, 

 Soe. nationale Sci. nat. Cherbourg, t. xxix. (1894) p. 185. 



§ Capt. V. Wolgemuth, 'Die osterreichische Polarstation Jan-Mayen, 

 1882-83, Beobachtungs-Ergebnisse,' iii. Band, pp. 55, 56. 



ll Kramer and Neumann in ' Ur. Dvega Expeditionens Vet.-Iakttagelserd.' 

 iii. 1883. 



^ Trouessart {loc. cit.). 



*» L. Xoch in Svenska Ak. Handl. Band 16, No. 5 (1879). 



