SHORTER ARTICLES AND DISCUSSION 



NOTES ON THE FAUNA OF GREAT SALT LAKE 



In the years during which the writer was zoologist at the Uni- 

 versity of Utah (1908-15) observations were made on the life of 

 the Great Salt Lake, when time could be spared from multitudi- 

 nous teaching duties. The animals of this brine lake earliest 

 reported, Artemia fertiUs Verrill, and the larvse of the small 

 Dipteron, Ephydra gracilis Packard, were naturally the first at- 

 traction, since they were abundant, commonly known to science, 

 and readily observable to any one looking for them. A second 

 species of Ephydrn, E. hians Say, was reported by Aldrich in 

 1912.^ A Chironomns has been reported also, according to Tal- 

 mage,^ but no reference to the authority is given and his own 

 statement is confusing, as he says he has "confirmed the pres- 

 ence of . . . the larva? of one of the Tipulidae, probably Ch irono- 

 mus oceanicus Packard "! He further states that " The larvte 

 of the tipula may be taken anywhere near shore during the 

 warm months," but the present writer is compelled to state 

 that neither larvse, pupae or adults of either a Tipulid, or of a 

 Chironomus was ever observed by him in the Lake, nor are any 

 such reported by Aldrich, an authority on Diptera, in his reports 

 of collecting about Great Salt Lake.^' ^ Qther forms than 

 Ephydra might well occur in such a portion of the lake as the 

 great Bear River Bay. where the salt content of the water must 

 be much less, owing to a great influx of fresh water from the 

 Bear River, and to the fact that the bay is partially cut off from 

 the main lake by the causeway of the Southern Pacific Railway. 

 Aldrich, however, has certainly been on the Bear River Bay side 

 of the cut-off, as shown by Plate II. Fig. 8.^ 



In tentativf'ly trying out " to see what might be a profitable 



