ANTARCTIC ENTOMOLOGY WITH EMPHASIS ON

Abstract: During the past 3 years or so the known land arthropod fauna of Antarctica proper has been increased from about 130 to about 136 species, and the published fossil species of insects have increased from 3 to 6. Recent further evidence for the existence of Gondwanaland and continental drift helps to strengthen reliance on the apparent indications that the antarctic land fauna is related to those of the several southern continents and that the apparent endemic genera may have survived the Pleistocene on the Antarctic con-tinent and that their relatives may be found on any of the southern continents. In 1967 the American Geophysical Union published "Entomology of Antarct ica " as volume 10 of the Antarctic Research Series (Gressitt, ed., 1967). At the time that volume was in press, some field work in Antarctica was just being completed or was then in the process of being written up, and the results were not available in time for publication in that volume. Some of the results of those projects form the bulk of this volume, to which are added some pertinent reports from other sources. Recent discoveries of fossil vertebrates and fossil insects in the interior of Antarctica and various lines of new evidence on the history of the Antarctic continent stimulate new attempts to determine the role of Antarctica in the history of evolution and spread of Southern Hemisphere insects. Though the da ta available are still too meagre for many conclusions, it may be appropriate to evaluate ou