The following descriptions and notes are based on Palaearctic material of Fanniinae in the U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C., and on Indian material in the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa. One new species is described from Tunisia, one from India, two from Japan, and six from Szechuen province near the China-Tibet border in China. Special thanks are due Dr. R. H. Foote of the U.S. National Museum for making this material available to me.

The apple aphid, Aphis pomi DeG., has long been a problem in British Columbia orchards (13), but has become particularly serious in the last few years (14, 15). Infestations are common on both bearing and young trees. Aphids occur especially at the terminal parts of new growth, suckers and sprouts. They reproduce extremely rapidly and large numbers cause curling and deformatinn of leaves. Further, this distortion of the leaves then protects the aphid colonies from spray application to some extent, and in clumps of such leaves, unharmed survivors are often found after the most thorough spraying. However, even where efficient spray application has been made before the leaf-curling stage has been reached, reinfestation and recolonization, presumably from outside sources, is a common occurrence. A search for “persistent” aphicides, that would at the same time give control of other common orchard pests such as codling moth, has been in progress at this laboratory for some years and in particular, Diazinon (15), Trithion (14), and Sevin (6) have been studied.

The onion maggot, Hylemya antiqua (Meig), has three distinct generations a year in Canada (Armstrong 1924, Hammond 1924, Baker 1928, Lafrance and Perron 1959), and usually two generations in England (Miles 1955). In Canada the three generations overlap considerably and adults of each generation are observed in flight in late summer (Perron et al. 1953). It is the most important pest of onions (Matthewman et al. 1950, Hudon and Perron 1956), and the first generation is the most injurious to the onion plants (Kendall 1932, Miles 1953).

The philosophy of subspeciation among animals requires that these taxa be essentially reproductively isolated. When such isolation does not exist clines appear. We believe that we have discovered one of the rare occasions when two well-defined subspecies, considered by some taxonomists to be two species, occupy the same terrain and where some degree of hybridization has taken place with the production of a hybrid brood that is temporally isolated from one subspecies and geographically from the other. Neither isolation may be absolute but that condition is closely approached.

Nearly all forest regions in the Province of Quebec where balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) is an important tree component have been subjected to severe defoliation by the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.), during the past 20 years. These outbreaks have followed an easterly direction beginning near the Ontario-Quebec border in 1939 and ending in the Gaspé Peninsula in 1958.

Felt (1940) mentioned a midge in Douglas-fir needles which he called Cecidomyia sp.; this reference was quoted by Barnes (1951). Denton (1954) reported that a midge, identified by the Division of Insect Identification, United States Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine as Cecidomyia sp., occurred in needles of Douglas fir in northeastern Washington, northern Idaho, and northeastern Montana. In 1954 the author reared some adults which H. F. Barnes (in litt. 1957) referred to the genus Contarinia Rond. Unpublished records from 1935 to date indicate unidentified needle-inhabiting gall midges throughout most of the host range. Recently the author found indications of a species comples which were confirmed by further rearings of adults. This paper presents the description of three new species of Contarinia Rond., reared under similar conditions, from material obtained at Oyama, B.C.

In June, 1954, hawthorn trees and shrubs in St. John's, Newfoundland, were severely attacked by small leaf-eating caterpillars. Larvae were talzen from a hawthorn tree, Cratageus sp., at Bowring Park, St. John's West, during the first week of July, 1954, and reared in the laboratory. Moths that emerged were identified as of Swammerdamia lutarea (Haw.) by Dr. T. N. Freeman, Entomology Research Institute, Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, who also noted (in litt.) that this was apparently the first record of the species in North America. Dr. L. G. Davis (in litt.), Economic Insect Survey Section, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., later confirmed this observation. Swammerdamia lutarea is now common throughout St. John's and has also been found at Brigus, approximately 50 miles to the west.

In the early 1930's defoliation of red oak, Quercus rubra L., white elm, Ulmus americana L., apple, Malus spp., and other deciduous trees in the South Shore region of Nova Scotia was attributed to the fall cankerworm, Alsophila pometaria (Harr.), and the spring cankerworm, Paleacrita vernata (Peck). The identity of the latter was questioned when adults occurred in the fall. These adults were sutbsequently identified as Operophtera brumata (L.), the winter moth (Hawboldt and Cuming, 1950; Smith, 1950).

Studies on the ecology of Megachile perihirta Ckll. (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), a leaf-cutter bee that is a valuable pollinator of alfalfa in southern Alberta, indicated that the pillager (depredator) Nemognatha lutea Lec. (Coleoptera: Meloidae) and the parasite Dasymutilla fulvohirta (Cress.) (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) have other hosts besides M. perihirta (Hobbs, 1956). Adults of both species at the nesting habitat of a population of M. perihirta have been too numerous to have come solely from the cells of M. perihirta; also, the wide range in size of the adults of N. lutea indicated that other insects also served as hosts for this species. Mickel (1928, 1928a) found that D. fulvohirta was a pillager of Anthophora occidentalis Cress. In southern Alberts, the wingless females of D. fulvohirta would be within reach of A. occidentalis while parasitizing M. perihirta, as the vertical clay banks that house A. occidentalis are topped by the prairie into which M. perihirta tunnels. As N. lutea lays its eggs in masses on the phyllaries of the buds of wavy-leaved thistle, Cirsium undulatum (Nutt.) Spreng., a favourite food source of M. perihirta, and as A. occidentalis also uses C. undulatum as a food source, investigations were conducted in whether A. occidentalis might be one of the principal hosts of N. lutea too.

Certain investigations of the cattle grubs Hypoderma bovis (L.) and H. lineatum (De Vill.) have been hampered by difficulties in inducing the flies to mate and oviposit in captivity. For example, Parish (1955, 1957) suggested that infesting cattle with standard numbers of grubs would facilitate properly controlled experiments with therapeutic agents, and hc attempted artificial insemination of the female flies toward this objective. In addition, procedures that would induce mating and oviposition in thc laboratory could be used to analyse the reproductive behavior of the flies and the characteiistics of the resulting cattle grub populations.

In recent years, experimental research on feeding and nutrition of aphids has been closely associated with studies on host plant resistance or susceptibility to aphids. No satisfactory artificial feeding technique has yet been devised. Maltais (1952) and Day and Irzykiewicz (195 3) have described methods using membranes, and reviewed the literature on previous attempts to induce plant-sucking insects to feed through membranes. Recently, Maltais (1959) has offered a promising alternative method using plant cuttings in organic nutrient solutions. His new technique was developed to exploit the findings of Mittler (1957) that the natural turgor pressure of willow apparently forced phloem sieve-tube sap up the stylets of Tuberolachnus salignus (Gmelin) .