http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3847-6031
ABSTRACT
The Rosenthal Islands lie along the western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula. They are largely inaccessible and the few research projects in the area have focused on seabird colonies, so nothing has been known about the arthropod fauna on these islands. We conducted a preliminary survey of the arthropods associated with large penguin colonies. We identified two species of Collembola (Cryptopygus antarcticus and Friesea grisea), four species of mites (Alaskozetes antarcticus, Hydrogamasellus racovitzai, Tectopenthalodes villosus and Rhagidia sp.) and one insect (Belgica antarctica). The mite A. antarcticus and the collembolan C. antarcticus were common in large aggregations at our collecting sites and were occasionally observed on the surface of penguin guano without vegetative cover. The insect, a chironomid midge, was less common and found only in vegetated areas.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Colin Harris and Katharina Lorenz of Environmental Research and Assessment for contributing the map in . We would also like to thank the support staff at Palmer Station, in particular the small boat operations team, for their hard work and assistance as well as the captain and crew of the Laurence M. Gould, who provided logistic support and expertly coordinated the field visit.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.