DURING THE RECENT ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



101 



Island, is already tolerably well-known. So long ago as 1780 

 the Danish missionary Otto Fabricins published his ' Eauna 

 Groenlandica ;' more recently, in 1859, Schiodte gave an enu- 

 meration of the insects of G-reenland in E-ink's ' Grronland geo- 

 graphisk og statistisk beskrevet ;' and only three years ago the 

 species found in East Greenland received attention in the Eeport 

 of the second German Nortk-Polar voyage. I have not yet seen 

 a connected Eeport on the collections formed by the naturalist of 

 the American ' Polaris ' expedition : these are from a latitude 

 little inferior to that reached by our own expedition ; but they still 

 refer to Greenland on the eastern side of Smith Sound. 



It w^as scarcely to be hoped that the insects from a point so far 

 north as between the parallels of 78° and 83° could be of any great 

 importance. The sequel has, on the contrary, proved to my mind 

 incontestably that the most valuable of the whole zoological col- 

 lections are the Insecta. The Birds may be looked upon as more 

 or less migratory, seeking high latitudes during the short summer 

 and then retiring southward. The Fishes (excepting the lacus- 

 trine), Crustacea, Mollusca, &c. are not subject to the rigid con- 

 ditions imposed upon the Insects ; and of these latter it may, I 

 think, be taken for granted that all (excepting the bird-lice, &c., 

 which are carried hither and thither by their hosts) breed and 

 live continuously in these desolate regions. I have used the term 

 desolate ; but the desolation is not of that extreme nature one 

 would expect. I am informed by Professor Oliver that over sixty 

 species of flow^ering plants have been determined in the collections 

 formed by the naturalists of the expedition between the already 

 given parallels of latitude. This fact at first sight reads more 

 like romance ; it is strengthened by another, still more remark- 

 able. Thirty-five specimens of gaily-coloured Butterflies were pro- 

 cured, belonging to certainly five distinct species. It may safely 

 be asserted that there are desert regions in the tropics that would 

 not furnish an equal number. Moreover there are two species 

 of Humble-Bees ; and an example of one of these was chased by 

 Capt. Peilden (but not captured) in as far north as lat. 82° 80'. 

 An analysis of the collections produces the following results : — 



Hymenoptera 5 species Mallophaga 7 species 



Coleoptera 1 ,, Collembola 3 „ 



Lepidoptera 13 „ 



Diptera ...about 15 „ Araneidea 6 



Hemiptera L „ Acaridea ... about 9 „ 



