FLORA AND FAUNA 



talned in 1903. One evening at the end of November, 

 191 1, I noticed some dark specks floating" on a little 

 rocky pool at Cape Geology in Granite Harbor. With 

 no organic matter in the air this seemed unusual and 

 on closer examination I found that these were the long- 

 desired insects. They were little dark bluish fellows 

 shaped like a cigar, with six legs and no wings. Each 

 insect was about one millimeter long, and they clus- 

 tered together like aphides (see Figure 12). 



Later we found them under most of the stones near 

 the moss, clustering among the whitish roots (or 

 hyphae) of the moss. They would be frozen stiff in 

 a thin film of ice until one turned the stone into the 

 sun. Then the ice would melt, and they would move 

 sluggishly about until the sun left them, when their 

 damp habitation froze again. I cannot imagine a 

 finer example of hibernation, for it looked as if they 

 pursued an active life only when a beneficent explorer 

 let in a little sunlight on them ! There was also a much 

 more active reddish insect, so small that one could only 

 just see it; but the Gomphocephaliis, as the larger blue 

 genus is called, was readily visible to the naked eye. 



Nordenskjold has described a wingless mosquito, 

 called Belgica, as the largest animal living continuously 

 in Antarctica. This is four millimeters long, a perfect 

 giant compared with my little Collemhola. But since 

 Wilkins has shown that all the Graham Land region 

 is merely a cluster of islands, and as it is moreover 

 mainly north of the Antarctic Circle, I think I may 

 perhaps claim for Gomphocephahis the proud record 

 of being the largest living Antarctic animal ! 



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