ANTARCTICA’S INSECTS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29130, 16 February 1960, Page 17

ANTARCTICA’S INSECTS

New Species Found

One or two species of entirely new insects have been found in the area surrounding McMurdo Sound in Antarctica by an American entomologist who returned to Christchurch in the icebreaker Alatna yesterday. He is Dr. J. Linsley Gressitt, chairman of the entomology department at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum at Honolulu, who has just spent two and a half months studying insect dispersal. “We have made significant rather than spectacular gains - to establish our belief that insects are carried great distances as air plankton,” said Dr. Gressitt.

Most of his time in Antarctica was spent making investigations around the McMurdo Sound region, but some trips were made to the surrounding valleys of Victoria Land. Most of the results from there had proved negative, said Dr. Gressitt. With Dr. Gressitt were two entomology students at the museum —Mr R. E. Leech, who is now aboard the icebreaker Glacier continuing the work in the Bellingshausen Sea, and Mr C. W. O'Brien, who is still at McMurdo Sound.

Altogether, the scientists found 10 species around McMurdo Sound. These are in addition to some 45 to 50 species previously collected in Antarctica, the bulk of which came from Grahamland, said Dr. Gressitt.

The one or two new species which he had collected and which were external parasites had been found., on penguins, skuas and seals. Other species found were springtails and mites, most of which were discovered under or near rocks bearing mosses, lichens or algae, he said.

Dr. Gressitt said that a lot of time and effort had been put in on air plankton trapping work, but most of the results had proved negative. The insects were trapped in large nylon net op the ground or suspended from ships or Otter aircraft.

On the return journey in the Alatna, most of Dr. Gressitt’s nets were ruined by strong winds and bad weather. He hopes to return to the Antarctic continent again next year, although that trip will be to Grahamland.