The Rotatoria of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 
1913-1918. 
By H.,K. Harrine, 
Custodian of Rotatoria, U. S. National Museum. 
When the Canadian Arctic Expedition was organized with Mr. James 
Murray as oceanographer and marine biologist, all students of the rotifers 
looked forward to a considerable increase of our knowledge of the group and 
hoped for a repetition of his success in the Antarctic as biologist of the Shackle- 
ton Expedition. These expectations were frustrated through his death following 
the loss of the Karluk and the career of an enthusiastic naturalist and tireless 
worker was brought to an untimely end. No other member of the expedition 
was able to make special collections of rotifers, but the general plankton collec- 
tions made by the marine biologist of the southern party, Mr. Frits Johansen, 
contained a considerable number of rotifers, which were assigned to the writer 
for a report. Some collections made by Mr. J. M. Jessup while serving, on 
the Alaskan Boundary Survey have been included, as they belong to the same 
faunal area and add somewhat to our scanty knowledge of the distribution 
of the Rotatoria in the Arctic. Virtually all that we know on this subject 
is to be found in Bergendal’s Zur Rotatorienfauna Grénlands (1892), and the 
value of this is somewhat minimized by his unfamiliarity with the group prior 
to his visit to Greenland: 
_ While the species reported on here are not very numerous, 64 in all, they 
furnish additional, even if superflous, evidence that climate is not directly a 
factor in rotifer distribution. Four new species are described, among which a’ 
pelagic Synchaeta is of special interest, as it is an addition to the extremely 
small number of rotifers known to exist in the open ocean in water of normal 
salinity. The total absence of the genus Brachionus, so abundant elsewhere, 
is noteworthy; Bergendal mentions two species of this genus from Greenland, 
but his notes on these forms make it somewhat doubtful whether he really 
found any Brachinoids. 
I am indebted to Mr. Frank J. Myers, of the American Museum of Natural 
History, New York City, for drawing the plates accompanying this report. 
ORDER PLOIMA. 
FAMILY NOTOMMATID. : 
Notommata copeus Ehrenberg. 
A few specimens of this species were collected by Jessup in lakes on Old Crow 
river flats, 55 miles north of New Rampart House, on July 10, 1911. 
Notommata cyrtopus Gosse. 
Several specimens occurred in a collection from a pond near new Rampart 
House, at the International Boundary and Porcupine river, made by Jessup 
on June 12, 1911. 
Proales sordida Gosse. 
A few specimens in a collection made by Johansen among mosses and alge 
from a pond at Chantry island, Bernard harbour, Dolphin and Union strait, 
on June 17; 1916. 
