The notes and descriptions that follow arise from material submitted for identification from various sources over the past few years. Doubtless much still remains to be discovered in this genus, and a general revision would be premature at this time. The number of striking new species is surprising: every new collection seems to yield one or two more. Despite the great superficial variation in the genus, the genitalia are very uniform. The main structural variation externally is in the mouth-parts, the labial palpi varying considerably in length and the tongue tending towards obsolescence in many species. There seems to be considerable variation in development of the tongue even in single species, and I doubt if this can form the basis of subdivision of the genus. Most or all of the old-world species and some new-world ones have been wrongly referred to this genus; however, I shall leave the disposition of these extraneous elements to a future paper.

Phytoseiid mites are of cosmopolitan interest because they are predacious on many phytophagous mites (Tetranychidae, Eriophyidae, and Tarsonemidae) that are pests of agricultural crops. They have been studied in orchards (Collyer, 1953, 1956; Lord, 1949), vineyards (Mathys, 1955), citrus groves (Fleschner and Ricker, 1954; Muma, 1955), and strawberry plantings (Huffaker and Kennett, 1953, 1956), but few workers have recorded their presence in native environments. In the commercial fruit-growing areas of British Columbia, orchards are often planted near uncultivated areas of bush or grassland. The study on which these notes are based was undertaken to determine whether the phytoseiids that occur in these native sites become established in the orchards, and to obtain a knowledge of the entire phytoseiid fauna of the area, a necessary prerequisite to ecological studies of predacious mites in orchards.

The relation of host density to reproduction of the chalcid parasite Dahlbominus fuscipennis (Zett.) was examined in a previous study (Burnett, 1954). When the parasite searched in a naturally varying physical environment for hosts–cocoons of sawflies that attack conifers–distributed over plots on a grass lawn, the influence of host density on parasitism was similar to that obtained in laboratory experiments. As the irregularities of the meteorological factors did not appreciably alter the relation of parasitism to host density it was of interest to determine whether the additional discontinuities of a natural environment would.

Three species of Spilomyia from western North America have been in the Canadian National Collection under the name Spilomyia interrupta Williston, 1882. Two of these are described below as new. Through the co-operation of Mr. Paul Arnaud, then of the U.S. National Museum, I examined the two female syntypes of interrupta and four other specimens of the group. One syntype, labelled “W.J.; Acc. 19702, Williston; Type No. 875, U.S.N.M.; Spilomyia interrupta Will.” on four labels is hereby designated as lectotype; it has been so labelled. The other syntype is a specimen of the species described below as Spilomyia citima n.sp. The other four specimens in the U.S.N.M. are all of interrupta: 1 ♂, Hopland, Calif., Sept.; 1 ♂, Mountains near Claremont, Calif.; 1 ♀, Tuolumne, Calif.; 1 ♀, Medford, Oreg. The C.N.C. contains two specimens of interrupta: 1 ♂, Hopland, Calif., Sept.; 1 ♀, Rowena, Oreg., Sept. 1, 1923 (on flowers of Eriogonum umbellatum). Mr. R. H. Foxlee of Robson, B.C., kindly sent me several specimens for study and donated most of them to the C.N.C.; it gives me pleasure to dedicate one of the new species to him.

In a previous paper, six species were placed in the genus Podolasia Harold (Howden, 1954). Since then an additional, very distinctive, species has been collected in the Big Bend area of western Texas by Mr. L. J. Bottimer, Kerrville, Texas. This species belongs to the group having nine-segmented antennae and bidentate fore tibiae, but differs from all known species in the shape of the clypeus and of the male genitalia.

Hübner (1818:24) erected the genus Epicorsia, mentioning two species: E. mellinalis Hübner and E. verticalis (Linnaeus). Shibuya (1928:280) selected nyctemeralis Hübner and Pierce and Metcalfe ( 1938:58) selected repandalis Schiff. as type of Epicorsia; both selections refer to a publication other than the original one of the genus and are therefore intrinsically invalid; moreover neither of these species is one of the originally included ones. Accordingly I hereby select Epicorsia mellinalis Hübner as type of Epicorsia Hübner, in accordance with the usage of Warren (1891) and of most modern authors.

Cutworms are excellent insects for investigations on physiology, behaviour, and toxicology in the laboratory. Although they are often plentiful and easily obtained in the field during outbreaks their use as laboratory animals is dependent upon satisfactory methods of rearing. Cutworms vary in life history and feeding habits, and many species require distinctive rearing techniques.

The hydrogen-ion concentration of the alimentary canal of insects has been studied by many workers. In their review of this subject, Day and Waterhouse (1953) conclude that the pH of the foregut is often the same as that of the food, that of the midgut varies in different species from 3 to 10, but that of the hindgut rarely varies far from neutrality. Various methods of determining pH and their relative merits have been discussed by Waterhouse (1940). He considers that incorporating pH indicators into the food is the most accurate method with insects that are too small to enable their gut pH to be measured electrometrically.

This paper describes females and some of the larval stages and male “puparia” for species of Lecanium known to occur in Canada. Also, it tenders a solution toward establishing a name for a North American species that has been confused with L. corni Bouché as identified by Marchal (1908).

The fungus Metarrhizium anisopliae (Metch.) Sor., which causes a disease in insects known as green-muscardine, was first used by Metchnikoff in 1879 to infect insects artificially. Subsequently it was widely tested as a control agent with a few encouraging results (Steinhaus, 1949).

From 1951 to date the disease was common in a moderately dense population of the introduced elaterid wireworm Agriotes obscurus (L.) near Dartmouth, and much less prevalent in a very dense population of a related introduced species, A. sputator (L.), near Digby. The higher incidence of the disease near Dartmouth was tentatively attributed to the fact that this area has greater annual rainfall and is more subject to coastal fogs than is Digby. These observations led to the culturing and testing of the fungus in the laboratory and to attempts to increase the incidence of the disease at both Digby and Dartmouth by artificial dissemination of the spores in the soil.