The literature on the Hydracarina, or water mites, especially on the North American fauna, is widely scattered in many journals. The papers of Koenike (1895 and 1912) and Wolcott (1898-1905) represent the earliest comprehensive works on American water mites. The papers of Marshall (1903-1946) list many species, but are not summarized. Mitchell (1954), whose check list represents the first modern attempt to examine the extent of work on North American water mites, lists 291 species which had been reported from this continent at that time. That paper is based primarily on those species in the collection of the Chicago Natural History Museum. Habeeb (1959) lists 446 species and subspecies, but in the absence of annotations some of the listings remain questionable.

The spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.)) is a forest pest in all Canadian Provinces and Territories, and in the northeastern, midwest, and northwestern Unired States. It is by iar the most destructive insect affeiting the extensive balsam fir-spruce forest types in Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime Provinces, and Maine. Outbreaks of varying extent have been reported from these regions almost every year for the past half-century (deGryse, 1947). Periods in which outbreaks were particularly severe and widespread occurred from about 1909 to 1920 and in the 1940's and 1950's. In both periods, outbreaks showed a tendency to shift from west to east, intensifying first in parts of northern Ontario and Quebec and dying out in the Atlantic region south of the St. Lawrence River.

The predacious mites of the subfamily Phytoseiinae are common predators of the phytophagous mites in apple orchards in Nova Scotia. There is little information in the literature on the value of these predators in the control of phytophagous mites or on the food necessary for their development and reproduction. Ballard (1953) found that at 78°F. at least two males of Tetranychus bimaculatus Har. were required daily by Typhlodroms fallacis (Garm.) to complete the protonymphal or the deutonymphal instar. The males and mated females consumed daily an average of 3.9 and 7.5 males respectively from the larva1 to the adult stage. Chant (1960) found that T. pyri required 25 larvae of Panonychus ulmi (Koch), during 26 days to complete development at 64°F. in the absence of plant material or free water. These authors did not study the effects of different amounts of food on the development of these two species of phytoseiids.

The pine engraver, Ips pini (Say), is one of the most common bark beetles found in pine and spruce in eastern Canada. Clemens (1916) studied its biology in New York State, and more recently, Reid (1955) reported the seasonal development of this beetle in Alberta. Prebble (1933) discussed the larval development at Fredericton, N.B., and I have listed the associates of this species found in red and white pine logging slash in western Quebec (Thomas, 1955). Leach, Orr and Christensen (1934) and Orr (1935) discussed the association of this bark beetle wit11 blue-staining fungi in red pine logs in Minnesota. Most of the observations reported in this paper concern the life history of I. pini in jack pine at Black Sturgeon Lake in northwestern Ontario from 1952 to 1960. Supplementary observations were also made on the seasonal development of this insect in red pine in southern Ontario in 1956 and 1957, and in white pine at Laniel, Quebec, in 1951.

It is well known that living plants possess electrical potentials and radiate electrostatic fields (Lund, 1929a, 1929b; Rurr, 1945; Dewey, 1956; Maund and Chalmers, 1960). Additional charges are added to the plants by raindrops and by splashings from soil, dust, and insecticidal sprays. The following is a report on experiments to show whether charged surfaces influence insect movements.

In the vicinity of Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park, California, an outbreak of the lodgepole needle miner, Evagora milleri (Busck), (new combination, Freeman 1960 = Recurvaria milleri Busck – Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), continues unabated subsequent to its discovery in 1947. Although the outbreak is the third in this area since 1940, factors causing periodic increases and declines of E. milleri have not been determined. Climatic changes were found to have initiated and terminated an outbreak of an allied species, Evagora starki (Freeman), (new combination, Freeman 1960 = Recurvaria starki Freeman), on lodgepole pine in Canada (Stark 1959). However, an apparently sustained favorable climate at Yosemite, while perhaps capable of encouraging needle miner outbreaks cannot, as yet, be held responsible for their declines in this region.

Although many possible vectors of the Dutch elm disease, Ceratocystis ulmi (Buism.) C. Moreau, have been listed by Collins et al. (1936) and others, only two, Scolytus multistriatus (Marsh.), the European elm bark beetle, and Hylurgopinus rufipes (Eichh.), the native elm bark beetle, are known to transmit the disease with any regularity. In this capacity alone thcse two species of beetles are important pests of elm. The persistent spread of the Dutch elm disease in southern Ontario (Hord and Quirke, 1955) made it imperative that adequate surveys be maintained to indicate yearly changes in the occurrence of the introduced vector, and to ascertain more precisely the distribution of the native vector relative to the distribution of elm in Ontario. Consequently the Forest Insect Survey of the Forest Insect Laboratory, Sault Ste. Marie, intensified its elm bark beetle program in 1956, and from then to 1959, 138 positive samples of these two scolytid beetles have been received. An analvsis of these records and their relationihip to the current incidence of the Dutch elm disease in Ontario are presented in this paper.

Insect damage to jack pine shoots (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) in the Lake Nipigon region of Ontario was first reported by Thomas and Lindquist (1956). Since then, a study of insects infesting jack pine shoots has shown that a bark beetle, Conophthorus sp., has been chiefly responsible for shoot damage. A secondary borer, Cimberis elongatus (Lec.), was usually associated with the bark beetle, and because little has been published on the biology of any of the anthribids, the general life history of C. elongatus is outlined here.