Abstract
DURING a recent ramble upon the Morteratsch Glacier, I also observed a large number of the minute black creatures described by Prof. Frankland in NATURE, No. 100. My attention had been directed to them ten years ago by Lord Anson on the “snow-bones,” near the summit of the Ægischorn. They are only nominal “cousins” of the flea (Pulex) of civilised life, and are not at all related to Dapnia, the “water flea,” but are closely allied to the minute insects which are often seen on the surface of stagnant water, resembling grains of gunpowder, and skipping partly by help of their forked tail, folded under them so as to serve as a foot, hence their name Podura, or “skip-tail.” They have been named by Agassiz Desoria saltans. Their food, I conjectured with Prof. Frankland, consists of “red snow” and other microscopic algæ. Not being myself within reach of a good library, I can only furnish your readers with a key to further information.
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JOHNS, C. Ice Fleas. Nature 4, 446 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004446b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/004446b0
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