Three species of Spilomyia from western North America have been in the Canadian National Collection under the name Spilomyia interrupta Williston, 1882. Two of these are described below as new. Through the co-operation of Mr. Paul Arnaud, then of the U.S. National Museum, I examined the two female syntypes of interrupta and four other specimens of the group. One syntype, labelled “W.J.; Acc. 19702, Williston; Type No. 875, U.S.N.M.; Spilomyia interrupta Will.” on four labels is hereby designated as lectotype; it has been so labelled. The other syntype is a specimen of the species described below as Spilomyia citima n.sp. The other four specimens in the U.S.N.M. are all of interrupta: 1 ♂, Hopland, Calif., Sept.; 1 ♂, Mountains near Claremont, Calif.; 1 ♀, Tuolumne, Calif.; 1 ♀, Medford, Oreg. The C.N.C. contains two specimens of interrupta: 1 ♂, Hopland, Calif., Sept.; 1 ♀, Rowena, Oreg., Sept. 1, 1923 (on flowers of Eriogonum umbellatum). Mr. R. H. Foxlee of Robson, B.C., kindly sent me several specimens for study and donated most of them to the C.N.C.; it gives me pleasure to dedicate one of the new species to him.

The existence of strains of mites resistant to parathion has been well established (Garman, 1950; Lienk, Dean, & Chapman, 1952; Newcomer & Dean, 1952; Smith & Fulton, 1951). Resistant strains of the European red mite, Metatetranychus ulmi (Koch), first occurred in orchards of the Pacific northwest in 1950 (Newcomer, 1951; O'Neill & Hantsbarger, 1951), approximately three years after parathion was first used as an acaricide. Two other species of orchard mites, the Pacific mite, Tetranychus pacificus McG., and T. mcdanieli McG., were subsequently reported to have developed parathion-resistant strains in the same area (Newcomer & Dean, 1953). Though parathion is lethal to most predacious mites and insects, Huffaker and Kennett (1953) found a difference in tolerance between species of Typhlodromus in the field and in the laboratory: T. reticulatus Oudms. was very susceptible to parathion whereas T. occidentalis Nesbitt was not appreciably affected by it.

Studies on insects affecting seed and forage production of legume crops were begun in eastern Ontario in 1951. Since little was known of what species of insects were of economic importance in these crops in this area, the primary objects of the studies were to determine what species of insects damage the forage crop legumes, their seasonal occurrence and abundance, and something of their importance. Observations were made as well on some of the beneficial insects found in association with the crops.

In studies of army ants on Barro Colorado Island, Canal Zone, Panama, C. W. Rettenmeyer collected two new species of Euryomma in association with colonies of Eciton burchelli (Westw.). Adults of both species were collected flying above refuse heaps of the ants, a good series of one was reared, and all stages of the larvae of both were taken in berlese samples of the refuse deposits. Descriptions of all stages of both species, except for the egg and puparium of the rarer species, are presented here. No immature stages of Euryomma spp. have been known previously, nor are there any published data on the life-history and habits of any species of the genus.

Sequential sampling methods have been developed for population surveys of a number of forest insects (4, 6, 7, 9). These methods permit rapid classification of populations into broad infestation classes with predetermined accuracy and a minimum of sampling, and are useful for mapping and recording widespread infestations.

The method of assessing egg populations of the larch sawfly, Pristiphora erichsonii (Htg.), developed by Ives (3) for intensive population studies, was not suitable for surveys because of the large sample size required. A sequential plan for the larch sawfly using hypothetical infestation classes was briefly reviewed by Ives (2). This plan is modified in the present paper in accordance with new data that have accumulated from observations on plots in the Whiteshell Forest Reserve and other stands in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

In the laboratory it was observed that the plant bug Liocoris borealis Kelton occasionally attacked its predator, an assassin bug, Sinea diadema (F.) (Reduviidae), when the nymphs of S. diadema were immobilized during moulting. During an experiment seven out of 35 predators were killed by their intended prey. It is probable, how-ever, that others were also killed, for only seven reached the adult stage.

It was necessary to know the specific gravity of the haemolymph, or blood, of grasshoppers for certain investigations on insect immunity, This information is not given in reviews on the physical properties of insect haemolymph (Rapp, 1947; Buck, 1953). Determinations of specific gravity were made by the technique developed by Lowry and Hunter (1945) and used on insects by Baldwin and House (1352). Nine males and 11 females of Melanoplus bivittatus (Say) and 11 males and nine females of Melanoplus mexicanus (Sauss.) were used after they had fed in the laboratory for three days on lettuce and dry dietary components. The mean specific gravity and the standard deviation for M. bivittatus was 1.0271 ± .0043, 1.0262 ± .0046, for the male and 1.0281 ± .0039 for the female; for M. mexicanus, 1.0261 ± .0023, 1.0257 ±.0021, and 1.0264 ± .0025, respectively.

The European spruce sawfly, Diprion hercyniae (Htg.), was first found in Canada in 1930. An aerial survey in the following year showed that it was causing severe defoliation in an area of about 2,500 square miles in the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec. In succeeding years it spread rapidly over wide areas in Eastern Canada (see, e.g., Baird 1937, Balch 1937). The work reported below was part of an attempt to control the sawfly by biotic agents.

Studies of the mountain pine beetle by DeLeon (1934), Evenden et al. (1943), Hopping and Mathers (1945), have shown that females frequently establish more than one egg gallery each season, Recent studies by the author indicate that females commonly leave their first egg galleries after a period of 2-3 weeks and fly to another tree where the second egg galleries are established.

During May, 1957 near Lumby, B.C., there was a reoccurrence of the gregarious flight behaviour of Priacma serrata males observed the preceding year (Atkins, 1957). Once more these beetles exhibited a strong attraction to “Perfex” laundry bleach, which is an aqueous solution containing 5-5.5 per cent sodium hypochlorite and 4.3 per cent sodium chlorate. They swarmed around the bleach-treated articles every fair day from the 5th of May until the first week of June. This situation presented an ideal opportunity to study certain aspects of the behaviour of this strange insect and accordingly observations were made on the beetles' flight both in the field and under laboratory conditions.

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:

The following method of rearing the red-banded leaf roller, a pest that has recently become increasingly destructive and difficult to control on apple in Ontario, was developed to obtain a supply of insects for insecticide tests during the winter. No reference to methods of rearing this insect in the winter were found in the literature. As the Field Station at Simcoe has no greenhouse or plant growth room, the entire procedure was conducted in an office room and basement except that some of the bean plants used were obtained from the greenhouse of the Entomology Laboratory, Vineland Station, Ont.

One of the objectives in the study of tick paralysis at Kamloops was to discover a species of laboratory animal that is consistently susceptible to this disease. Such an animal was needed to explore inconsistencies probably caused by differences in tick virulence or host susceptibility. Observations on infestations of adults of Dermacentor andersoni in tick paralysis areas in British Columbia, and experiments with similar ticks on large and small wild and domestic animals, have revealed the following.

Investigations by Baker and Stewart (1928), Sleesman (1934), and Matthewman et al. (1953) on varietal resistance of seeded onions to the onion maggot, Hylemya antiqua (Meig.), gave no significant results, probably because they were made on small numbers of commercial varieties. This is a report on field and greenhause tests from 1955 to 1957 on 44 varieties of Allium spp. grown from seed. The variety Early Yellow Globe was used as a standard of susceptibility to the onion maggot in all tests.

In a previous paper, six species were placed in the genus Podolasia Harold (Howden, 1954). Since then an additional, very distinctive, species has been collected in the Big Bend area of western Texas by Mr. L. J. Bottimer, Kerrville, Texas. This species belongs to the group having nine-segmented antennae and bidentate fore tibiae, but differs from all known species in the shape of the clypeus and of the male genitalia.

The house cricket, Acheta domesticus (L.) (Gryllidae, Orthoptera), is a cosmopolitan and easily available insect, and is most suitable as a test animal for physiological research, as has been pointed out by Stone (1953). However, in spite of the long familiarity of entonlologists with this insect it has received very little attention in the literature, no doubt because it has never been of economic importance in Europe or North America. Such quantitative observations on its development as do exist are rather fragmentary (Kemper, 1937; Stone, 1953; Busvine, 1955). The present article describes, in a somewhat more precise way, the rate of development of the nymph of the house cricket at various temperatures and the number and duration of the nymphal stadia, as well as a satisfactory method of rearing the insect and observations on its fecundity.

The phylogenetic position of the family Cupedidae (Cupesidae or Cupidae of some authors) has been the subject of much controversy. As studies have been made for the most part on the eastern genus Cupes, I was pleased to have an opportunity to study the western species Priacma serrata (Lec.) (Atkins, 1957). Several hundred males were collected near Lumky, B.C. during spring in 1956 and 1957. Many of these were dissected in order to study those features of the internal and external morphology on which much of the following discussion is based.

The life-history, habits, and development of Spilochalcis side (Walk.) (torvina Cress.) were investigated at Belleville during studies on the parasites of needle miners, Recurvaria spp., attacking lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta Dougl. var. latifolia Engelm.

Burks (1940) recorded this species as a parasite of species of the following families of Lepidoptera: Noctuidae, Gelechiidae, Eucosmidae, Glyphipterygidac, Plutellidae, Ypononleutidae, Coleophoridae, and Lyonetiidae. He also recorded it from Coleoptera (Curculionidae) and from Hymenoptera (Ichneumonidae and Braconidae). Doner (1936) stated that it parasitized small numbers of pupae of the cherry casebearer, Coleophora pruniella Clem., each year from 1930 to 1933 at the University of Wisconsin Experiment Station at Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. It was reared at Belleville on pupae of Depressaria heracliana (L.), Anagasta kühniella (Zell.), Galleria mellonella L., and Pyrausta nubilalis (Hbn.) (Lepidoptera); in the cocoons of Apanteles atalantae (Pack.), A. congregatus (Say), and A. glomeratus (L.) (Hymenoptera); and in an unidentified coleopterous casebearer.

Cocoons of Neodiprion sertifer (Geoff.) were collected in southwestern Ontario in 1941, 1943, 1946, 1947, and 1949 for experimental investigations at the Belleville laboratory. A total of 8,326 cocoons were collected, mainly within about eight miles northeast and east of Sarnia, Ont., but a few were collected at Strathroy and Brigden, Ont. Each cocoon was incubated separately in a small vial so that each parasite could be associated with the host cocoon from which it emerged. Sawflies emerged from 68 per cent of the cocoons and parasices from 12 per cent; dissection of the remaining cocoons showed 16 per cent contained dead sawfly larvae and pupae, and four per cent dead parasite larvae.

Members of the present genus are commonly encountered in faunistic studies of the southwestern United States and Mexico, but little or no informati,on has been recorded concerning their biology or ,host relationships and taxonomic status.

Brauer and Bergenstamm established Mochlosoma with validum, new, as the type and sole original species, (Zweifl. d. Kaiserl. Mus., IV, 1889, 126). The type series is in the Vienna Natural History Museum, and apparently it was not seen by any American worker in Diptera until 1925, when Aldrich recharacterized the genotype and restricted the type series to the single male specimen from Pennsylvania, (Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer., XVIII, 116-118). More recently Townsend also redefined the genus (Manual of Myiology, part VII, 1938, 346-347). These interpretations of the generic characters are now generally accepted for Mochlosoma and are summarized for ready reference to all species included in the accompanying key.