Nine species of solitary bees are recorded from a northern area of Northwest Territories: Osmia inermis from tundra at Tuktoyaktuk, and Hylaeus ellipticus, Evylaeus comagenensis, E. borealis, Sphecodes aff. pusillus, Anthidium tenuiflorae, Megachile centuncularis, M. f. frigida, and Anthophora b. bomboides from the northern limit of subarctic forest at Inuvik. All represent the northernmost records of the species. Some chorological and ecological notes are added to.

Historical and recently published information on the parasitic associations of larval water mites with insect hosts is critically reviewed and summarized. A number of problematical published host records are either confirmed or rejected, and many newly discovered associations are reported. Associations of parasitic larvae with insect hosts are confirmed for species of water mites representing 70 of the nearly 300 described genera, in 28 of the 45 currently recognized families, and all 7 superfamilies. Life history, behavioral, ecological, and phylogenetic data on water mites of genera with known larvae are summarized to provide the basis for interpreting the evolutionary significance of observed host associations. Previously established hypotheses are evaluated in the light of a greatly expanded list of verified observations.

Commercial Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (B.t.k.) (Dipel 132® and Thuricide 48 LV®) were bioassayed at 20 and 25°C against 3rd- (L3), 4th- (L4), 5th- (L5), and 6th- (L6) instar larvae of the bertha armyworm, Mamestra configurata Walker, on greenhouse-grown canola, Brassica napus L. cv. Westar. The L4 was the most susceptible stage to B.t.k. but it was much less susceptible than the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.), a species against which this bacterium is currently used. The lethal time of B.t.k. to the larvae was inversely related to dosage applied. Younger instars (L3 to L4) were more sensitive to Dipel than older instars (L5 to L6) at 20°C but the reverse was true for Thuricide-treated larvae. All B.t.k. treatments reduced weight gain and frass deposition (by inference feeding activity) compared with untreated controls. The LC50 concentration of B.t.k. for larvae reduced survival to adult emergence by 87–100%.

Workers of the bumblebee Bombus griseocollis were found to use honey-daubing as a method of defence against (mostly heterospecific) intruders. The distant taxonomic relatedness of this species to others that practise honey-daubing may imply that this defence has evolved independently at least twice in the genus Bombus.

Avoidance of four strains of Drosophila melanogaster to the pyrethroid insecticide permethrin was studied. All strains showed concentration-dependent avoidance, with avoidance detected at levels as low as 1 ppm. Avoidance was not dependent on the insect acquiring a lethal dose. Some correlation appeared to exist between higher locomotor activity and lower sensitivity to permethrin. The most sensitive strain had the lowest activity. Two of the four strains studied were chosen as permethrin-sensitive mutants following mutagenesis. These two strains had activity levels significantly lower than the original strain from which they were obtained, raising the question as to whether the increased sensitivity to permethrin following mutagenesis reflects an alteration in the target site of permethrin, a neuroactive insecticide.

Microplitis mediator (Haliday) is being considered for introduction into Saskatchewan to augment the biological control of the bertha armyworm, Mamestra configurata Walker. It was reared in the laboratory on larvae of the bertha armyworm. Notes on the life history and descriptions of the egg and three larval stages are given.

Red Delicious and Winesap apples infested with San Jose scale were placed into either regular (CS) or controlled-atmosphere (CA) cold storage, either with or without prior fumigation with methyl bromide. Fumigation with a dose of 32 g/m3 killed all infesting stages of the scale on Red Delicious apples in CS after 31 days and in CA after 137 days. Complete scale mortality on Winesap apples occurred after 167 days in CA and in CS if previously fumigated.

On 5 September 1982, the third coauthor collected a single male of an unfamiliar geometrid moth in Vancouver, British Columbia. He sent it to the first coauthor, who recognized it as a species of Ennomos related to our native maple spanworm moth, E. magnaria Guenée. The second coauthor identified it as Ennomos alniaria (L.), a European species known in Britain as the canary-shouldered thorn.