Records indicate that the present outbreak of the larch sawfly in Manitoba and Saskatchewan began about 1938 in the Spruce Woods-Riding Mountain area of Manitoba. Since then, it has spread in all directions where the principal host tree, larch, Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch, occurs. It now includes nearly all of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, northwestern Ontario, part of northeastern Alberta, and northern Minnesota. In 1944, an annual survey of parasites that attack larvae of the larch sawfly was begun by the Forest Biology Laboratory, Winnipeg. The purposes of the survey were to determine (a) the principal species of parasites, (b) their abundance and effectiveness, and (c) .host-parasite population trends.

An aphid collected on Philadelphus gordonianus Lindl. at Agassiz, British Columbia, by R. Glendenning was sent to the writer for identification. The specimens could not be determined and extensive examination indicated that a new genus and species of aphid were involved.

Early in the summer of 1951 a small collection of aquatic insects was submitted to the author by J. Goodwin of Toronto, taken from Sheldon Creek in Dufferin County, Ontario. Included were nymphs of two readily distinguishable species of Rithrogena, one having bright red gills and the other hyaline whitish gills, Those with hyaline whitish gills were more abundant and proved to be R. impersonata Mc.D. of which specimens from Baddeck, N.S. and Lachine, P.Q. are in the Canadian National Collection at Ottawa. I have records of this species in both nymphal and adult stages from the Credit River, Peel County, Ontario, where the association of nymph and adult was made, and in the nymphal stage from the Saugeen River in Grey County, Ontario. The nymphs with red gills proved to be those of a new species which, considering genitalic characters, is closely related to R. impersonata.

In October, 1953, an estimated 20 per cent of the sheep in “The Green” section of Bell Island, Conception Bay, Newfoundland, were infested with blowfly larvae. In some instances the infestation was so severe that the sheep died from the attack.

Larvae collected from an infested sheep were reared on Pard (Swift Canadian Company, Toronto) dog food. The flies were considered by Mr. J. F. McAlpine, Systematic Entomology Unit, Entomology Division, Ottawa, to be of Phaenicia sericata (Mg.). Mr. McAlpine (in litt.) hoted that the Newfonndland specimens differed slightly from Hall's concept of P. sericata in colour, degree of pollinosity, and width of from in the male; however, a small series of reared adults was all that was available from Newfoundland and these differences may fall within the limits of variation for such a common, widespread species.

A number of reports on snow insects have been made by entomologists although many of them are brief and fragmentary. Brauer (1871) long ago considered the problem which winter represents for insect life and stated that Boreus (Mecoptera: Boreidae) and Chionea (Diptera: Tipulidae) and several members of the Collembola were true snow insects. Frey (1913) collected many insects from the surface of snow and listed representatives of the above mentioned groups from Finland, as mlell as a large number of insects whose presence on the snow was apparently accidental. Marchand (1917) made some interesting observations on the bchaviour of Chionea and its temperature tolerance and referred to several earlier papers on this genus. Handschin (1919a) carried out an extended study of the snow zone fauna of the high Alps and took many specimens on the snow or on glaciers. However, he did not list Boreus and his Diptera had not been identified when he made his report. Collembola were dealt with in another publication (1919b).

The beetle fauna of Labrador, like the literature dealing with it, is very poor. Besides old records of singlc species and incomplete lists, the only papers of importance are those by Sherman (1910), Brown (1930, 1932), and Eidmann (1935), and only Sherman lists all of the Labrador species known at the time. The fauna of northernmost Labrador is touched upon by Blair (1933) and Brown (1937).

A recent paper (2) described the light reactions of Sarcophaga aldrichi Parker when the eyes of the fly were treated in different ways. The present paper describes a similar series of observations on adults of the sawfly, Neodiprion lecontei (Fitch), and analyses the functions of their compound eyes, dorsal ocelli, and antennae.

Paper partition chromatography is a physico-chemical technique that enables the investigator to separate inorganic and organic constituents of various kinds, e.g., amino acids, purines, pyrimidines and related substances, sugars and their derivatives, organic acids, vitamins, antibiotics, and chemical elemens, and measure them quantitatively.

The genus Catallagia Rothschild was considered to be strictly Nearctic until C. dacenkoi was described by Ioff in 1940 from the Altai Mountains of the U.S.S.R. In 1950, Skalon described two additional species, C. ioffi and C. striatus, from the Transbaikal and other areas of the U.S.S.R. All three of the Russian species are apparently parasitic upon mice, particularly of the genus Clethrionomys (=Evotomys).