1905-6.] Collembola from the South Orkney Islands. 
473 
Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. “Scotia” Col- 
lections. Collembola from the South Orkney Islands. 
By George H. Carpenter, B.Sc., M.R.I.A., Professor of 
Zoology in the Royal College of Science, Dublin. (With 
Two Plates.) Communicated by William Evans, Esq. 
(Read March 5, 1906.) 
Introductory. 
Our knowledge of Antarctic Aptera has been growing rapidly 
during the last few years, a number of species from remote 
southern regions having been described by Willem (1902) from 
the countries south of Patagonia explored by the Belgica , by 
Schaffer (1897) from Tierra del Fuego, by Enderlein (1903) 
from Kerguelen, and a single Isotoma by the present writer (1902) 
from South Victoria Land.* We find in the Antarctic as in the 
Arctic regions that in our advance towards the most remote and 
inhospitable lands, where winged insects cease to be represented, 
the primitive Aptera are still found fairly numerous in species, 
and often multitudinous in individuals. A careful study of these 
small frail insects fully repays the naturalist, both on account of 
the interest of their structure and the light which their distribution 
throws on geographical problems. For the wingless — primitively 
wingless, as we believe — condition of these insects, their frail 
integument, and their concealed mode of life make it highly 
unlikely that they can cross broad tracts of sea ; therefore the 
presence of identical or closely allied species on widely separated 
islands or continents may safely be regarded as sure evidence of 
the antiquity of the insects, and of the former existence of land- 
connections to explain their present discontinuous range. 
Three species of Aptera are represented in the collections from 
the South Orkneys. All belong to the Collembola, and all are 
referable to the family Entomobryidee and to the sub-family 
Isotominse, two being members of the cosmopolitan genus Isotoma, 
* While this paper is passing through the press, Wahlgren’s memoir (1906) 
on the Collembola of the Swedish South Polar Expedition appears. 
