Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T21:20:36.293Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Insect habitats in Antarctica*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

J. L. Gressitt  and
R. E. Leech
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

About fifty species of terrestrial arthropods have been collected in Antarctica; these include mites, ticks, springtails, sucking lice, biting lice and flies. The mites include both free-living and parasitic forms, the springtails and flies are free-living, and the ticks and lice are parasitic. The ticks, parasitic mites, and biting lice are associated with birds, and the sucking lice with seals. The number of species are about equally divided between free-living and parasitic forms. The ability of insects and mites to survive the very low winter temperatures and frequent strong winds of Antarctica is of considerable interest; judged in relation to commonly accepted ideas of tolerance, the environment is extremely forbidding.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 10 , Issue 68 , May 1961 , pp. 501 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Gressitt, J. L. and Weber, N. A.. Bibliographic introduction to Antarctic-Sub-antarctic entomology. Pacific Insects, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1960, p. 441–80.Google Scholar
2Gressitt, J. L.. Field work in Antarctica. Pacific Insects, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1960, p. 238–39.Google Scholar
3Murray, M. D.. Ecology of the louse Lepidophthirus macrorhini Enderlein 1904 on the elephant seal Mirounga leonina (L). Nature, Vol. 102, No. 4632, 1958, p. 404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4Pewe, T. L., Rivard, N. R.and Llano, G. A.. Mummified seal carcasses in the McMurdo Sound region, Antarctica. Science, Vol. 130, 1959, p. 716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5Tyndale-Biscoe, C. H.. On the occurrence of life near the Beardmore Glacier, Antarctica. Pacific Insects, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1960, p. 251–53.Google Scholar
6Gressitt, J. L., Leech, R. E. and O'Brien, C. W.. Trapping of air-borne insects in the Antarctic area. Pacific Insects, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1960, p. 245–50.Google Scholar
7Rübsaamen, E. H.. Chironomidæ. Expeditions Antarctiques Belges, resultats du voyage du S. Y. Belgica en 1897–1898–1899. Rapports scientifiques: zoologie. Insectes, 1906, p. 75–85.Google Scholar
8Torres, B. A.. Primer hallazgo de Tendipedidos alados en la region Antarctica. Podonominae, una breva sub-familia para la citada region. Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica Argentina, Vol. 161, No. 4–6, 1956, p. 41–52.Google Scholar
9 Per Dalenius and Ove Wilson. On the soil fauna of the Antarctic and of the Sub-Antarctic islands. The Oribatidae (Acari). Arkiv for zoologi. Series 2, Vol. II, No. 23, 1958, p. 393–425.Google Scholar