The first objective in the breeding of insects for physiological research is a sufficient number of insects of the greatest uniformity both within and between generations. The methods used must emphasize conditions of cleanliness and should preferably give freedom from offensive odours. Wit11 the growth of Knowledge of the factors involved and with the development of new food materids the rearing procedures have been modified. This article describes the present status of our methods used in the rearing of houseflies and roaches.

The plum curculio, Contrachelus nenuphar (Hbst.), always a serious pest of stone fruits in thc Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, has increased in importance since 1946, especially in peach orchards. A five-year study of its life-history, ecology, and control was started in 1950 at Vineland Station. This paper deals with the biological phases of the investigation.

The value of woodpeckers in insect control has been recognized by entomologists for many years. Woodpeckers seek out and destroy many of the hidden insect pests of forest, shade and fruit trees and in the stalks or stems of agricultural crops. In forest trees, these birds have been reported destroying buprestid larvae and prepupae (1, 4, 16), cerambycid larvae and pupae (9, 10), and scolytid beetles (11-15, 18).

Bryobia praetiosa Koch (1836) was formerly regarded as a complex of closely related species or races similar in morphological characters but varying widely in life-history, host plant specificity, and habits. The authors (30) have recently shown that two species, the clover mite, B. praetiosa Koch, and the brown mite, B. arborea Morgan and Anderson, can be distinguished in British Columbia on the basis of morphological characters. This paper presents ecological data in support of the morphological evidence.

Recent studies in the Larentiinae revealed two new occurrences for North America, one apparently indigenous and the other introduced. A third species discussed below has stood in the American lists for over fifty years on the basis of a misdetermination, and should be removed.

Lygris populata L.

The early literature contains many references to this species in North America but it is almost certain that all such records can be attributed to the superficially similar Nearctic species, Lygris propulsata Wlk. During current investigations in the genus Dysstroma, I encountered Alaskan specimens that proved to be genuine Lygris populata. These specimens, in the collections of three different museums where they were misdetermined as, or mixed in with, material of Dysstroma glacialis Hlst., are as follows:

Since 1953, plantation omers in southern Ontario have suffered serious losses from a group of tip-infesting insects of the family Tortricidae. These insects live primarily on the herbaceous ground-cover plants but may ascend trees under about 3 feet in height and feed on the new shoots during May and June, killing or injuring the leaders and causing serious growth deformities. Five species are involved, of which Tortrix alleniana Fernald and T. pallorana Robinson are common, and Archips rosaceana Harris, Sparganothis sulfureana Clemens, and S. unifasciana lemens occur only as scattered individuals among larger populations of the two common species. This paper records the most salient points in the life history and general ecology of T. alleniana and T. pallorana, with notes on the other three species.

An apparatus which provides a temperature gradient within a small enclosed space is described. Provision is made for control of absolute humidity within the apparatus so that the same temperature gradient may be used with a variety of humidity gradients. The system of temperature measurement and recording and the operating characteristics of the machine are described.

Many entomological problems require the identification and observation of insects without disturbing their surroundings. Such problems are usually concerned with insects within host or pupal coverings and radiography is a method well suited to their solution. The technique is a special type of radiography in which soft X-rays (wave length longer than about 0.25A), passing through an object of low density, produce a shadow image on fine-grain film in contact with the object.

A portable suction-type fly-collecting apparatus has been developed and used extensively in connection with diarrheal disease studies in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. It was designed to facilitate rapid collection of domestic flies from interiors of inhabited dwellings. Conventional or special bait traps (Coffey 1948, Anon. 1952, Schoof 1952) would cause abnormal attraction of flies from extramural sources and create possible nuisances. Many sampled buildings were without electrical power to operate suction-type collecting equipment and use of cone or sweep nets (Maier and Dow 1949) was not practical because of the possibility of damage to household furnishings.

The larva of the wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Nort. feeds entirely within a single host stem and is structurally adapted to this environment (Holmes 1954). Consequently an artificial rearing technique should provide a nutritionally adequate diet in a physical environment which will satisfy the structural needs of the insect. This note describes attempts to rear larvae of the wheat stem sawfly under artificial conditions.