A new genus, Melastola, with type-species Gymnonychus resinicolor Marlatt, and two new species, Pristola clarki and Melastola ferruginosa, are described. Keys to the genera and known species of the tribe Pristolini are presented. New distribution records for Pristola macnabi Ross are reported in North America.

The first signs of Phytomyza lanati Spencer activity are the feeding marks of the adult on the lower leaf surface of Heracleum lanatum Michx. In Alameda County, Calif., the adults were first seen in January and the larvae were present from mid-February to mid-June. Eggs are laid in the spongy mesophyll and the serpentine mine, made by the solitary larva, is mainly confined to the palisade layer. The larva remains within a single mine until just before puparium formation. At this time the mature larva exits from the leaf through a cut in the lower surface and drops to the soil. At 75 ± 1°F the average duration of the three immature stages are 47, 36, and 60 hours. Because the depth of the mine is constant, the surface area of the mine indicates the relative volume of food consumed. A comparison of the instars shows that the amount and rate of tunnelling increases greatly with each succeeding moult. Under constant temperature there is no significant difference between the amount mined during equivalent light and dark periods.

Adult activity, such as feeding, mating, and oviposition, occurs on the underside of the leaf. Feeding on the plant exudate appears necessary for sustaining adult life.

Three hymenopteran parasites were reared from P. lanati.Biological characteristics served to differentiate P. lanati from other Phytomyza species.

When male Anagasta kühniella (Zell.) were released in a wind tunnel downwind of a scenting female they flew upwind, but on losing the scent made crosswind casts and thus located the female. Downwind casts were rare. In still air males approached females from below. Visual stimuli seemed to induce mating behaviour.

Neosymydobius Baker is a small genus of aphids that is associated with Quercus spp. in North America. Six species are known, as follows: agrifoliae (Essig), albasiphus (Davis), canadensis Richards, chrysolepis (Swain), luteus Tissot, and memoralis Hottes and Frison. All species are redescribed and an illustrated key is offered.

Two orders of insects, Lepidoptera and Diptera, are responsible for most of the seed destruction in shortleaf pine in the Georgia Piedmont. The phycitids Dioryctria amatella (Hulst), D. zimmermani (Groté), and D. clarioralis (Walker) were found in approximately equal numbers. A gelechiid, Battaristis vitella (Bsk.), was commonly found in dried cones. Three genera of cecidomyiids, Hyperdiplosis, Lestodiplosis, and Mycodiplosis, were found to inhabit cones and cause considerable damage.

An inquiline nitidulid, Coleopterus truncatus (Rand), commonly occurs in Dioryctria-damaged cones.

Parasitism of Haematobia irritans (L.) was studied in six regions of Alberta differing in climate, soil, and vegetation. All of the eight parasites discovered were Hymenoptera: five belonged to the Pteromalidae, two to the Ichneumonidae, and one to the Cynipidae.

Two new species of aphids are described: apterous and alate viviparous females and oviparae of Macrosiphum hamiltoni new species, on Humulus lupulus L. in Manitoba; and apterous viviparous females and oviparae of Kakimia canadensis new species on Lonicera involucrata (Richards.) Banks in British Columbia and Idaho.

The following new pyraustine taxa are described: Psammotis turkestanica n. sp., East Turkestan; P. orientalis n. s p., Hokkaido, Far-Eastern SSR, Manchuria and Siberia; Xanthopsamma, n. gen., type-sp. X. aurantialis n. sp., Chekiang, Kiangsu and Hunan provs., China; X. youboialis n. sp., Hainan I., China; Nascia cilialis christophi n. subsp., Far-Eastern SSR; N. c. kumatai n. subsp., Hokkaido; Perinephela lancealis bergmeni n. subsp., Kurile Is.; P. l. pryeri n. subsp., Hokkaido; P. l. honshuensis n. subsp., Honshu; P. l. sinensis n. subsp., Shensi Prov. and West and South China; P. l. taiwanensis n. subsp., Taiwan.

Ebo dondalei and Xysticus posti, two new species of crab spiders from North Dakota, are described.

One ounce of ten per cent granular disulfoton, per tree, applied to 3- and 4-year old blue birch in mid-May, was found to take approximately 2 weeks before reaching significantly toxic levels in the leaves. Thereafter, these levels gave excellent control of Fenusa pusilla (Lepeletier) for the 1-year-and-4-month period of the experiment (May 1964 – September 1965). At this dosage, it would appear, the chemical can indefinitely suppress populations of the birch leaf miner if applied once every 2 years.

Insect control methods are usually aimed directly at the insects. Examples are insect exclusion, poisons, and the more recent methods which upset metabolism, nervous coordination, sensory perception, or fertility. Some methods are indirect and involve manipulation of insect parasites, predators and diseases, habitat destruction, and host management. Only selection and breeding for host resistance are directed at the host of the insect. This is somewhat surprising because the host–insect relationship presents some of the most vulnerable aspects of the life of an insect.

In the laboratory, second- and third-instar Plutella maculipennis (Curtis) larvae were about equally susceptible to parasitism by Diadegma insularis (Cresson) or by Microplitis plutellae Muesebeck. The fourth and last instar was less susceptible than the second and third. Larvae of the first instar, although usually within the tissues of the food plant, could be parasitized. Maximum progeny obtained from female parasites during a lifetime, with regularly renewed supplies of hosts, averaged 516 in D. insularis, and 232 in M. plutellae. Effectiveness of D. insularis among a given number of host larvae improved slightly, reaching 85/100 as cage size increased from 50 to 200 sq. in., and declined somewhat, from 124/200 to 94/200, when cage size was further increased from 200 to 1500 sq. in. In field cages of 1, 2, and 4 sq. yd, with 200 host larvae, single female D. insularis parasitized about 35, 20, and 7% of hosts respectively. With 50, 100, 200, and 400 host larvae in 200-sq.-in. cages, and one female per unit, average progeny of D. insularis were respectively 39, 70, 113, and 150; of M. plutellae, approximately the same. In competition, two females, one of each species, operating among the same lot of larval hosts, produced more total progeny than two of the same species. Increasing constant temperatures from 20° to 30° favoured D. insularis slightly, but viability and effectiveness of M. plutellae at 30° was reduced.

Seven species of Braconidae from southern Canada are described: Colastes polypori and Meteorus betulini from annual bracket fungus Polyporus betulini on birch, Diospilus fomitis from the perennial bracket fungus Fomes fomentarius on birch, and from Dorcatoma dresdensis (Anobiidae) in Ganoderma applanatum, Ichneutes pikonematis from Pikonema alaskensis, Cantharoctonus canadensis from Bucculatrix canadensisella, Hormius tsugae from Pulicalvaria apicitripunctella on hemlock and P. piceaella on spruce, and Microctonus loani from adults of Altica corni, Altica ambiens alni, and Calligrapha philadelphica.

Studies were conducted on the reactions of small mammals to the vital dyes Rhodamine B and Nile Blue. The dyes are currently in use as biological tracers for the larch sawfly. Two species of voles and two of four individual shrews reacted indiscriminately to dyed and undyed material: the reactions of the two remaining shrews varied. It was concluded that the behavior of small mammals would not affect seriously the results of field experiments using insects labeled with these dyes.

Antheraea polyphemus Cramer pupae, collected in early August, were found to maintain adult development at room temperature and natural daylength of late August and early September. These pupae had almost no coldhardiness, and heavy mortality occurred in the group of pupae stored at 6 °C. On the other hand, the pupae of A. polyphemus collected in late September were in diapause and were perfectly coldhardy. The possible relationship between the date of pupation and the incidence of diapause, and its significance as a natural mortality factor, is discussed.

Three new species of Pityophthorus Eichhoff (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) are described from Canada: aquilonius from the Yukon Territory, collinus attacking Pinus albicaulis in British Columbia, and orarius attacking Pseudotsuga menziesii in British Columbia.

A window flight trap was altered by replacing a collecting fluid trough with a horizontal cylinder, covered at both ends with clear plastic or screen. Insects falling into the cylinder move toward the light at the ends and are readily-collected. Sample data illustrate the usefulness of the traps for collecting scolytid beetles.

The European Bruchidius ater (Marsh.), first discovered in Massachusetts in 1918, and later in Virginia, is here recorded from Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link, its known host in the United States, the insect was reared from seeds of Petteria ramentacea (Sieber) Presl and Laburnum alpinum Bercht. and Presl at the New York locality. All three plants are introductions from Europe. Bruchidius unicolor (Ol.) was recognized in 1965 when it was discovered in British Columbia breeding in the seed pods of Onobrychis viciaefolia Scop. A single specimen, collected in Nicola, B.C., in 1922, indicates that the insect has been present in southwestern Canada for a considerable time.

Resistance to the initiation of feeding by newly hatched larvae of Hylemya brassicae (Bouché) confined on surfaces of rutabaga roots was examined. Differences between varieties could be distinguished by using 10 larvae on a root segment. There were no differences between roots within a variety or between portions of one root. The evidence of resistance in Wilhelmsburger was confirmed. This technique of rearing on a small surface area of the root may be valuable in evaluating lines in the laboratory without destroying their propagation value.

The tachinid genus Macromya (type, depressa R.-D.) as here considered includes five species of which three are described as new. All members are quite similar in external adult morphology as well as in biology. In the accompanying key to the currently known species, the distinctions are made chiefly on basic color differences. The center of maximum population for the genus occurs in the neotropics; its range however extends well within the southern limits of the nearctic region.