Rearing techniques were developed and apparatuses built for biological studies on the Elateridae in the organic soils of southwestern Quebec. Adults attracted to heap-traps are normally mixed with a large quantity of hay trash which makes the recovery of beetles tedious and difficult. To facilitate this work, an insect sorting box was designed and built and proved quite satisfactory. A flight-trap was also designed for obtaining information on adult species concerning their period of emergence, peak and length of emergence, and height and direction of flight. Adequate techniques for the incubation of wireworm eggs and the rearing of larvae under constant supply of water through capillary action were developed. A large field cage was designed and built to study under natural conditions the complete life-cycle of the species of elaterids found in organic soils.

The alfalfa plant bug, Adelphocoris lineolatus (Goeze), a well-known pest of alfalfa in Europe and the United States, was first recorded in Saskatchewan in 1947, in the Hudson Bay district about 16 miles west of the Manitoba border. By 1959 it had spread westward through the northern agricultural area of the province to within 35 miles of the Alberta border. Economic infestations appeared within two to four years of its initial occurrence in each district.

The migratory behaviour of the adult, which is apparently essential for maximum reproduction, effects rapid dispersal of the species. Also, because of this migratory behaviour control measures may have to be undertaken each year, and seedling stands may be infested in the first crop year.

The seasonal development of the insect is described. Apparently in the spread of the insect northward a univoltine population is being selected. Eggs that have overwintered in stems hatch in late May and early June. Development proceeds through five nymphal instars, and adults begin to appear toward the end of June. These adults lay eggs during the latter part of July. Most of the eggs enter diapause: less than five per cent of them hatch the same year, and any second-generation adults that do occur do not have time to mate and lay eggs before all activity is halted by freezing weather.

The main host plants of A. lineolatus are two cultivated legumes, alfalfa, Medicago media Pers., and red clover, Trifolium pratense L. No native host plants have been found in Saskatchewan.

About three per cent of field-collected nymphs from the Nipawin district were parasitized by braconid larvae tentatively identified as Euphorus pallipes (Curtis).

During studies on blood circulation in the wings of insects it was observed incidentally that the pterostigma (“stigma” of some authors) in some insects had little in common with the similarly-termed structure in others. At the same time some of them were structurally similar to areas not generally identified as pterostigmata in the wings of other species. In view of the general recognition of pterostigmata as an obvious feature in certain insect wings, the apparent mis-interpretation of their nature, and their possible significance in wing evolution, it seems useful to comment on their structure and possible origins.

Hebard (1915) and J. W. H. Rehn (1939 and 1939a) listed species of Orthoptera from Newfoundland but neither author reported any species of Gryllidae. Walker (1915) did not list any members of this family as inhabiting the Magdalen Islands.

The first record of a cricket from Newfoundland was by Ander (1960) who recorded two immature females from Shoal Harbour, July 27, 1951. He somewhat doubtfully assigned these specimens to Nemobius fasciatus (DeGeer), stating: “I suppose that the specimens belong to the species Nemobius fasciatus (Degeer), widely distributed in North America, which is common in Nova Scotia (Piers 1918). The specimens agree very well with the description of fasciatus in Morse (1920) and Blatchley (1920), and as it is the only Nemobius known from Nova Scotia I have good reasons to suppose that the larvae belong to the species mentioned.”

During ecological investigations of the pine root collar weevil, Hylobius radicis Buchanan, in central Wisconsin sand plains, a weevil of similar appearance, but of different habits, was encountered. This weevil was identified tentatively as H. radicis with the available keys (Buchanan, 1934 and Finnegan, 1961), and in general fits the original morphological description of that species. However, differences in biological habits and morphology suggested that an undescribed species was involved (Millers, 1960 and Millers and Benjamin, 1961), and the taxonomic separation and description of the new species follows:

The following description is offered for a previously undescribed ichneumonid parasite of Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.) reared, in recent years, in several parts of Canada, by officers of the Forest Entomology and Pathology Branch, Department of Forestry.

The species discussed below was first recorded under the name Synetaeris n. sp. as a parasite of the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana Clem., in Ontario by McGugan and Blais (1959), although they point out that it may have been collected from budworm in British Columbia during the 1940's but incorrectly identified at that time. These authors collected S. tenuifemur during the declining years of a budworm outbreak in the Lake Nipigon region of northwestern Ontario, and it was during the declining years of a severe outbreak that the parasite was first reared from budworm in the Green River area of north-western New Brunswick (Morris, 1963, in press). These data suggest that S. tenuifemur is associated with endemic budworm populations, an assumption advanced by McGugan and Blais (1959). However, it was not found in the Green River area from 1945 to 1947 when budworm density was at a low level prior to the 1949-1959 outbreak.

The barley jointworm, Harmolita hordei (Harr.), was first discovered at a point in the northeastern part of Prince Edward Island in 1946. It spread quite rapidly along the northern coastline of the province and more slowly southward, and today infestations may be found in most areas of the province. Inland movement of the pest did not start until about 1955 and since that time infestations have generally been lighter than they were previously.

H. hordei overwinters as mature larvae in galls in barley stubble left in fields after the grain is harvested. Adults emerge the following year during late June and early July and oviposit in the stems of young barley plants, usually when the plants are six to eight inches high. Eggs are almost always laid just above the lower nodes or joints, either on the main or on tillering stems. The adults live for four to eight days. The larvae develop inside the stems and the plant tissue around them develops into hard, woody galls. The larvae mature in three to four weeks and, thereafter, remain dormant inside the galls in the stems until the following year. Infested barley plants are stunted and heads may fail to develop or, if formed, contain small, shrivelled kernels. In severely infested fields, the grain crop is considered a complete loss.

There are six speoies of parasites known to attack H. hordei in Prince Edward Island, and all of them are chalcids that closely resemble the pest. Parasite eggs are deposited in the stem with the host and the larvae attack and destroy H. hordei larvae and then complete their development inside the galls. In addition to biological control by natural parasites, the other major natural control agent is considered to be weather, combinations of moisture, humidity, and temperature. However, further investigations are necessary to establish the influence of these different factors.

A method has been described for the rearing of European red mite wherein the temperature, light, and air humidity were controlled. It consisted of a sealed glass tube containing an apple twig with a mite infested leaf. The tube was ventilated with air of the desired humidity and the leaf was kept alive by inserting the end of the twig into daily-changed tap water.

The mean freezing point of adults of T. pyri was about −20° F., of T. finlandicus −22° F., and of T. rhenanus −24.5° F. The responses of T. fallacis and P. macropilis to low temperatures were about the same as T. pyri. The effect of the duration of exposure on the last three species was to increase the mortality about 12 to 15 per cent for each doubling of the duration of exposure from 0.5 to eight hours at −10° F. or lower.

The phytophagous brown mite, B. arborea, had a mean freezing point of −26° F. and the effect of duration of exposure was to increase the mortality eight to ten per cent each time the period of exposure was doubled from 0.25 to 16 hours at −24° F. or lower.

Production of webbing, greater fecundity, faster rate of development, and greater ability to thrive on foliage injured by feeding enabled populations of T. telarius to suppress those of P. ulmi on peach foliage in a greenhouse and insectary. However, these inhibitory factors were non-operative in an orchard environment in southwestern Ontario.

The tendency of the two species to populate different levels of a host plant, and of P. ulmi to utilize the upper surfaces of leaves more than T. telarius, each decreased the intensity of competition. The suppression of P. ulmi in an insectary or greenhouse was delayed but not prevented by the above factors.

The recent black-headed budworm outbreak on the Queen Charlotte Islands is the fourth recorded association between budworm trends and weather. The decrease in this instance was associated with a prolonged period of cold, wet weather which retarded larval feeding and development, resulting in heavy larval mortality. The observations strengthen the previous associations observed between weather and the rise and fall of black-headed budworm populations.

The tribe Ipini (sub-tribe Ipina) contains the genera Pityokteines Fuchs, Ips De Geer, Orthotomicus Ferrari (Balachowsky, 1949) and Orthotomides Wood. Some of the characters used in previous keys in this group are not constant within a genus but are useful when combined with other characters and when exceptions are specified. This article presents a key to the genera, with a discussion of some characters that have been used in previous keys. A new species is described and new synonymy and a new combination are established.

An ecological classification of dragonfly species into spring and summer types was proposed by Corbet (1954). Much of the basis for the classification rests with the pattern and period of adult emergence. Since little information of this type is known for North American species, the following observations are reported.

On May 20, 1962, I spent several hours collecting Baisaeschna janata and Didymops transversa along the New River, two miles north of McCoy, Virginia. A search was made at that time for odonate exuviae. None were found. I returned to the site at 9:30 a.m. the following day. The vegetation, tree trunks, rocks and detritus along the river were clustered with exuviae, all apparently of Gomphus vastus. Several thousand individuals must have emerged from that general area of the river. As an example of the density, 230 cast skins were counted along one 20-foot stretch of the river bank. Some individuals had transformed directly on the sand banks and others at a height of seven feet.

Hopping’s P. terminalis, which attacks the elongating terminal shoots of lodgepole pine in California, similarly attacks lodgepole pine in the Yukon and northern British Columbia. Cytologically it is unique, and on this basis, although phenotypically variable, it is demonstrated to occur on jack pine in Saskatchewan. Cytogenetic analysis proves it to be a hybrid species, thus accounting for both its internal cytological and external morphological polymorphism. Its fundamental taxonomic characteristics, determinable only in living specimens, comprise an unparalleled sexual dimorphism of chromosome complements and a restriction in breeding to current growth of lodgepole and jack pines.

After this article had been sent to press, we learned that G. R. Hopping (in "Lodgepole Pine in Alberta", Department of Forestry Bulletin 127, p. 84, 1962) had already discovered P. terminalis infesting lodgepole pine near Mercoal, Alta., in 1949.

Nymphs of Camnula pellucida hatching from an egg-bed originally about 800 square yards in extent had occupied, by the time they had reached the immature adult stage, approximately 160 acres. For the first three weeks the main factors affecting direction of advancing fronts appeared to be topographical features. The average rate of most rapid advance during this stage was only about 6 yards daily. Subsequently, dispersal appeared to become more random and general, proceeding at a maximum rate of about 20 yards daily, and rather rapidly over-running or outflanking most topographical features that had at first seemed to channelize movement. Dispersal in the nymphal stage was followed by characteristic reassembly of adults for breeding.

In October, 1960, growers in the Robinsons-St. Davids area of Newfoundland reported that aldrin and heptachlor no longer protected rutabagas and cabbage adequately from attack by the cabbage maggot, Hylemya brassicae (Bouché).

In 1961, an experiment was conducted in the area, at Jeffreys, to determine if strains resistant to chlorinated hydrocarbons had developed. Six plots, each containing 58 cabbage plants, were set up on June 13 in an area heavily infested with the maggot in the previous years. The insecticides, rates of application, and results obtained are shown in Table I. All treatments were applied two days after transplanting and concentrated in the soil around the stems of the plants.

The biota associated with Monochamus species collected in Maine include species of Acarina, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Nematoda, as well as fungal and bacterial pathogens.

Mites belonging to seven families and thirteen genera were found in association with the sawyers. Two species were previously unknown and have since been described as the new genus and species Longoseius cuniculus Chant of the family Digamasellidae and the new genus and species Mucroseius monochami Lindquist of the family Blattisocidae. Parasitic diptera belonged to three genera in three different families, and of these one contained a new species, Forcipomyia innom., family Ceratopogonidae, which was found as an intermittent parasite of adult Monochamus notatus and Monochamus scutellatus. This constitutes a new host record for the biting midge family. Only one hymenopterous parasite, a species of Dolichomitus was reared from a sawyer larva. The five genera of nematodes isolated from larvae, pupae, and adults of Monochamus species include specimens of the genus Hexamermis. Parasitism by this group is thought to be unusual because of the relative inaccessibility of the host. Isolates from eight fungal genera were obtained, and strains of Beauveria bassiana, and Isaria farinosa, were shown to be pathogenic. The bacteria isolated from dead sawyers included Aerobacter aerogenes, Bacillus cereus var. mycoides, and one unidentified species. Only the tachinid E. monohammi and the mite Uropoda have been previously reported of the large number of organisms found associated with sawyer beetles in this study. The fungus Beauveria bassiana proved to be the most important biological control agent.

A flexible cuticle found in the lepidopterous wing base is described and illustrated. The staining reaction of this cuticle with Mallory's triple stain is discussed and the variations in the form of this cuticle within the Lepidoptera are given.

This report shows: (1) by starvation tests on representative economic plants that none of them is a suitable host for C. lunula, (2) by feeding tests on plants in the Scrophulariaceae that only plants in the tribe Antirrhineae are potential hosts of the larvae, (3) by feeding tests with plant extracts that plants in the tribe Antirrhineae contain an unidentified feeding stimulant, (4) by preference tests with adults and larvae that, although the moths can be raised with difficulty in the laboratory on snapdragon and other ornamentals in the susceptible tribe, they are unlikely to attack these plants in nature.