A LAND WITHOUT BEETLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12688, 9 July 1919, Page 2

A LAND WITHOUT BEETLES.

On© of the most amazing things in natural history is the way in which beetles have triumphed ip the struggle for existence (says the “ Popular Science Monthly '). Of all creatures they are by far the most numerous. No fewer than 150,000 distinct species have been identified—three times tie number of backboned animals. Beetles are wonderfully adaptable. They are virtually everywhere-—in the frost-bound tracts of Iceland and in the hot desert sands of Africa., on the highest mountains, under the ground, and 1 as fossils in the deepest strata, on land and in the water, on plants, .among stones, and in wood and earth and even in the very craters of volcanoes. But there is one place where_ no beetle has yet been found—the inhospitable land of Spitsbergen, to the north of Russia. There are mammals, birds, fish, molluscs, crustaceans, a few insects-and many spiders there, but not a. beetle. Although other insects have succeeded in some way in migrating to Spitsbergen from the mainland, the beetles have apparently been unable to cross the wide, icy waters.

A most impudent theft was committed on the Hastings! racecourse'on the first day. of the winter meeting. An old man had gone to collect an £lB dividend, and, when presenting the ticket;.at tbe window,' a;; man whojwas waiting m the exit passage ' snatched' ■]\ and niade off. , So far no trace ’of the thief lias been obtained*