The black vine weevil, Brachyrhinus sulcatus (F.), a parthenogenetic species, has been present as a minor pest of strawberry in the Pacific northwest for many years (Treherne, 1914; Downes, 1924; Wilcox, Mote and Childs, 1934). Recently Andison (1953) reported that the species has increased rapidly in numbers during the past several years. In this area B. sulcatus is now as important as, if not more important than, the serious pest of strawberry, the strawberry root weevil, Brachyrhinus ovatus (L.). Since most of the damage is done by the larvae, which feed on the strawberry roots, it is necessary to control the adults before they commence oviposition, especially on soils that have not been treated with insecticides. The adults emerge and feed on the strawberry foliage during the first week of harvest. Studies at the Victoria laboratory have shown that most or all of the crop is harvested before oviposition becomes general. Hence, an insecticide can be applied before oviposition becomes general if this date can be predicted by examining the reproductive system. Also, it is important to know the stage of development of the ovaries of those adults that overwinter and are found in the strawberry fields in late March and April, so that control measures can be applied before oviposition again becomes general.

Serious damage to the seeds of wild rice, Zizania aquatica L., is caused annually by the larvae of a noctuid species hitherto unidentified and with little of its life-history known. In the summer of 1957 larvae reared from eggs found in the heads of wild rice were determined as of the species concerned, and in March, 1958 an adult reared from the same lot was identified by Dr. D. F. Hardwick, Entomology Division, Ottawa as of Apamea apamiformis (Guenée).

The sex of the western pine beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis Lec.) and the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus monticolae Hopk.) can be ascertained easily and with 100 percent accuracy by means of a secondary sex character on the seventh abdominal tergite of the male. This character can probably be used with equal accuracy to identify sex in all species of the genus Dendroctonus.

The need to distinguish between the sexes of adult bark beetles often arises in studies of biology, behavior, or response. The sexing procedure is laborious when large numbers of beetles are involved and external markings of sex are not known. It is then necessary to dissect each beetle to check the genitalia. Dissection is impossible when iniury to the insect must be avoided.

The European spruce sawfly, Diprion hercyniae (Htg.), was first found in Canada in 1930. An aerial survey in the following year showed that it was causing severe defoliation in an area of about 2,500 square miles in the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec. In succeeding years it spread rapidly over wide areas in Eastern Canada (see, e.g., Baird 1937, Balch 1937). The work reported below was part of an attempt to control the sawfly by biotic agents.

The life-history, habits, and development of Spilochalcis side (Walk.) (torvina Cress.) were investigated at Belleville during studies on the parasites of needle miners, Recurvaria spp., attacking lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta Dougl. var. latifolia Engelm.

Burks (1940) recorded this species as a parasite of species of the following families of Lepidoptera: Noctuidae, Gelechiidae, Eucosmidae, Glyphipterygidac, Plutellidae, Ypononleutidae, Coleophoridae, and Lyonetiidae. He also recorded it from Coleoptera (Curculionidae) and from Hymenoptera (Ichneumonidae and Braconidae). Doner (1936) stated that it parasitized small numbers of pupae of the cherry casebearer, Coleophora pruniella Clem., each year from 1930 to 1933 at the University of Wisconsin Experiment Station at Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. It was reared at Belleville on pupae of Depressaria heracliana (L.), Anagasta kühniella (Zell.), Galleria mellonella L., and Pyrausta nubilalis (Hbn.) (Lepidoptera); in the cocoons of Apanteles atalantae (Pack.), A. congregatus (Say), and A. glomeratus (L.) (Hymenoptera); and in an unidentified coleopterous casebearer.

Five species of parasites reared from European material were released at Oak Hill, near Bridgewater, Nova Scotia from 1954 to 1956 as biotic agents against the winter moth, Operophtera brumata (L.) which had been established in Nova Scotia since before 1950. Recovery collections were made annually from 1955 to 1957. This work is still in progress, and in 1957 releases were made in four additional localities. Results of establishment of parasites from releases from 1954 to 1956 are reported below.

Adults of most species of insect parasites spend much time finding objects that influence their individual and collective well-being. The object found at any time is usually correlated with the physiological state of the parasite and with extrinsic factors existing at that time. From the standpoint of the species' economy, the most important objects to be discovered are hosts on which fertile parasite progeny can mature. Whether hosts are found and parasitized is influenced, to varying degrees with different parasite species, by whether the female has already found, or been found by, a male of the same species, and by whether she has already located food other than that provided by hosts. The present study is of factors that affect host finding by females of a pteromalid, Nasonia vitripennis (Walk.).

The genus Megagrapha Melander is characterized by small size, pubescent eyes, broad thorax, large flattened scutellum, and broad wings. The wing venation is most distinctive, the basal cells being large and subequal, the crossveins confluent, the anal crossvein absent, and the anal vein curving along the caudal margin of the wing. The only other genus with these characteristics is the South American genus Austrodromia Collin, but in that genus the crossveins are distinctly basad of the apex of the subcostal vein, whereas in Megagrapha they are approximately opposite the apex.

Various methods for recording the activity of insects have been reported (e.g. Park, 1935, 1937; Gunn, 1940; Hammond, 1953). In this type of investigation, three characteristics are desired in the method: a) the apparatus should be sufficiently sensitive for recording small movements in small insects; b) the portion of the apparatus in immediate contact with the insect should permit easy subjection of the organism to various environmental conditions; c) the apparatus should permit rapid and easy accumulation of data from a number of insects. Two methods have been developed in the present laboratory in attempts to meet as far as possible these desirable qualifications.

Although many traps have been designed to study the responses of Lepidoptera to light sources of various intensities and qualities (Gui et al., 1942; Taylor and Deay, 1950; Glick and Hollingsworth, 1954; Merkl and Pfrimmer, 1955; Frost, 1957), few have been designed for studies of flight periodicity. The first one designed for the latter purpose was described by Seamans and Gray (1934). It consisted of seven individual collecting units built into one structure, each unit being operated for one hour of the night. Interval light traps subsequently designed by Hutchins (1940), Nagel and Granovsky (1947), and Coon (Frost, 1952) are of the Minnesota type (Frost, 1952), having a lamp bulb, hood, baffle and funnel. Beneath the funnel is a turntable, which brings a series of collecting jars under the spout of the funnel at regulated intervals. The Rothamstead trap (Williams, 1935, 1948) is also based on a bottle-changing mechanism.

In the description of the Byron Bog (Judd, 1957a) it was pointed out that Redmond's Pond is situated in the northwest corner of the bog and that during 1956 a tent-trap was anchored in a small bay in the northeast corner of the pond to trap insects emerging as adults from the water. The position of the trap on the pond is shown in the map accompanying the description of the bog (Judd, 1957a) and the structure and use of the trap are also described by Judd (1957b). The trap was placed on the water on May 15, 1956 and remained there until November 8. It was about four feet from the edge of the pond in water about two feet deep. At this point the bottom of the pond was composed of a thick layer of loose, brown peat and the adjacent edge of the pond was occupied by a dense growth of leatherleaf, Chamaedaphne calyculata, growing in Sphagnum (Judd, 1957a). The branches of the bushes of leatherleaf extended out over the water of the small bay in which the trap floated. The only rooted plant growing in and around the trap was spatterdock, Nuphar advena. Floating in the water was a sparse growth of bladderwort, Utricularia vulgaris, and on the surface of the water there were a few scattered fronds of duckweed, Lemna minor, and water flax-seed, Spirodela polyrhiza.

Ocnerostoma piniariella Zell. is an unimportant pest of Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris L., in Europe. A variety, copiosella Frey, is found in the Swiss Alps attacking a white pine, Pinus cembra L., and sometimes occurs in sufficient numbers to reduce growth. Both European forms have a life-history similar to that described here for British Columbia.

In North America, specimens identified as O. piniariella were collected in 1882 at Ithaca, New York (Forbes, 1924). The first Canadian record was for 1922 at Abbotsford, British Columbia, from white pine (Felt, 1922). The species has since been found in British Columbia at Vancouver, Victoria, Langley, and Aldergrove. Dr. T. N. Freeman (in litt.), Entomology Division, Ottawa, has collected it at Constance Bay, South March, Ottawa, and Bells Corners, Ontario.