A collection of pinned, inflated larvae systematically arranged in Schmitt boxes provides an invaluable reference for taxonomists. Inflated or blown larvae are more readily available for examination and usually retain their colours better than do “liquid-preserved” larvae. Inflation has disadvantages in that the specimens are more easily damaged and require more time in preparation. However the importance of these two factors has been reduced by techniques employed at the Vernon Laboratory.

An outbreak of the European spruce sawfly, Diprion hercyniae (Htg.), was discovered in the Gaspé Peninsula in 1930. By 1938, heavy infestations had developed west of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, throughout New Brunswick and northern Maine, and in parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. Moderate to light infestations occurred through all other parts of the spruce forests of this region and extended from Nova Scotia, to the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, and west to Ontario.

Much of the losses due to insects in stored grain occur when infestations remain unnoticed because of infrequent or inadequate sampling, There is clearly a need for a simple, sensitive method of indicating the presence of insects in stored grain before they become sufficiently numerous to occur in grain samples.

At the Winnipeg laboratory, jars of water are sometimes used to increase the relative humidity above wheat containing cultures of rhe rusty grain beetle, Laemophloeus ferrugineus Steph. The fact that adults were often trapped in the water suggested a method of detecting insect infestations in stored grain. This paper reports field and laboratory experiments on the general usefulness of a water-trap to detect insects in stored grain.

Larvae of the pale western cutworm, Agrotis orthogonia Morr., feed almost entirely below ground, attacking their food plants just below the soil surface. Larval movement and feeding usually occur at the interface between dry and moist soil. They can absorb moisture from the soil and also from the plants on which they are feeding.

In a previous investigation, Jacobson (1952) found that mortality from starvation varied directly with temperature and inversely with the size of larvae when the relative humidity was kept near 100 per cent. This paper is a report on the role of moisture during starvation.

Three types of cages, suitable for rearing potato-infesting aphids on whole plants, parts of plants, and excised leaves, have been developed during aphid investigations at the Fredericton laboratory. These cages have been used in the greenhouse and insectary with the four potato-infesting aphids Myzus persicae (Sulz.), Macrosiphum solanifolii (Ashm.), Aphis abbreviata Patch, and Aulacorthum solani (Kltb.).

Before the advent of synthetic organic insecticides, it was much more difficult to control the codling moth, Carpocapsa pomonella (L.), in arid, hot areas with a long growing season, as in the Pacific northwest, than in cooler areas such as Ontario, where there is more rainfall and usually a shorter growing season. As a rule, in all apple growing areas, the codling moth is most numerous during summers in which the temperatures are above normal, particularly if the prevailing temperatures are high at dusk, when the moth is ovipositing. Consequently, unsatisfactory control in hot, dry areas, such as the South Okanagan of British Columbia, was attributed largely to the direct and favorable influence of climate on codling moth development (Webster, 1936).

In a series of papers it has been shown that Tityus chromosomes are provided with one centromere at each end (2, 4, 5 and 6). Proofs of such a view were found in the behaviour of the chromosomes in the course of spermatogenesis in the widely distributed Brasilian species T. bahiensis (Perty). Indeed, the long rod-shaped bivalents of this interesting species orient themselves in such a way that, while their bodies lie flat in the equatorial plane, the partners' corresponding ends are turned towards opposite poles. Metaphase side views show that the paired chromosomes are separated throughout their length. Being entirely unconnected by chiasmata, the chromosomes move toward the poles in perfect parallel, with the ends forward until late anaphase, when they bend strongly. Fragments bearing a single terminal centromere perform anaphase movement parallel to the spindle axis, as do the orthodox acrocentric rod-shaped chromosomes (11).

During hurricane “Hazel”, on October 15, 1954, the Holland Marsh, Bradford, Ontario, was flooded with water to an average depth of about four feet. Some sections were covered by more than 10 feet of water and remained flooded for two to three weeks. Data from population studies on the carrot rust fly, Psila rosae (F.), conducted in the area by Miss J. B. Williams of the Ottawa laboratory from 1951 to 1953 and by the author in 1954 and 1955 provided an opportunity to determine whether the flood had affected the abundance of the insect.

It is well known that the reproduction of insects is affected by the nature of the larval and adult foods. However, there seems to be no consistent pattern of adult requirements; possibly this may be due in part to the varying amount of nutrients carried over from the immature stages to the adults of different species. This effect of food upon reproduction is an important factor influencing densities and distributions of insects. And rewartha and Birch (2954) pointed out that the quality of the food may influence an animal's chance to survive and multiply. Finlayson and Green (1940) found that fecundity of the parasite Aptesis basizonia (Grav.) was reduced about 80 per cent and that longevity was drastically shortened when mated females were allowed access to water but not food. Indirect factors may also be responsible. Allen and Selman (1955) showed that there was a significant reduction in egg production of the mustard beetle, Phaedon cochleariae (F.), when fed on leaves deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, or iron. Soils with such deficiencies might account for local variations in the density and distribution of insect species. Evans (1938) found that lack of light influenced the amount of protein in cabbages and ultimately reduced the number of young of Brevicoryne brassicae (L.) by about two-thirds. The effect of food on viability is of secondary importance, but should be investigated in any study of reproduction.

Wishart (in press) reported on surveys of parasites of the species of Hylemya that attack cruciferous rops in Canada. A similar survey was carried out in Europe during 1949 to 1954 to determine whether there were parasites not already present in Canada that, if introduced and established, might aid in the concml. Some data gathered in this survey were published previously (Wilkes and Wishart, 1953; Wishart and Monteith, 1954).

During the investigation of mealybug parasites in Trinidad seven species of Aenasius, one of them new, and a new species of Zarhopalus have been reared. The new species are described herein.

Genus Aenasius

Compere, (Proc. Hawaii. ent. Soc., 9, pp. 383-404, 1937) gave a comprehensive review of the genus, described several new species and provided a key for the separation of the known species. Recently three additional species have been described, Aenasius masii, by Domenichini (Boll. 2001. agrar. bachic., 17, 157-180, 1951) from Peru, Aenasius theobromae by Kerrich (Bull. ent. Res., 44, 789-810, 1953) from Trinidad, and Aenasius bolowi by Mercet (Rev. Acad., Madrid, 41, 461-468, 1947) from Costa Rica.

This paper describes a successful attempt to tag adult females of the European pine shoot, Rhyacionia buoliuna (Schiff.) with Co60, chosen as a tagging agent because it is a gamma emitter with a sufficiently long half-life (5.3 years). Emphasis is placed on the preparation and application of the tracer material, the absence of immediately harmful effects of radiation on the insects, and the ability of the insects to behave normally with the tags in place. This work was undertaken in order so develop techniques for following the movements of large numbers of these insects.

Though various species of the genus Mochlonyx Loew are known to be predacious on mosquitoes, there are only a few records of M. velutinus (Ruthe) (= M. culiciformis (DeG.)) in this role. According to Meinert (1886) the larvae of this species feed on the crustaceans Cypris and Daphnia in Denmark. At Churchill, Manitoba, Hocking et al. (1950) considered it the most abundant chaoborine in both open forest and tundra pools but did not specify its feeding habits. Twinn (1926) and Curtis (1953), however, referred to it definitely as a predator of mosquito larvae.

Hypermallus Casey (not Lacordaire), 1912, Mem. Coleopt. vol. 3, p. 292.

Form elongate, slender to moderately robust, subcylindrical to moderately depressed. Head narrowly channeled between antennal bases; maxillary and labial palpi short, not very unequal, last segment slightly expanded; antennae moderately heavy, outer segments more or less flattened, often convex or carinate, third segment armed at inner apex with a moderate spine, those of following segments, if present, becoming successively shorter, outer angle of segments mute or armed with a small spine. Pronotum subcylindrical or rounded at the sides, usually with dorsal tubercles or calluses; prosternum with intercosal process arcuately declivous behind; episternum of metathorax narrow, nearly paralle-sided. Elytra with apices usually emarginate, usually bispinose. Legs slender; femora without apical spines.

Adhesive or climbing organs in the form of empodia or pulvilli between the tarsal claws are common structures in Hymenoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and other orders (Weber 1933). A more unusual type consisting of a small oval sac on the distal end of the tibia of the prothoracic and metathoracic legs of the reduviid Rhodnius prolixus Stål. has been described by Gillett and Wigglesworth (1932).

In 1913 Horace Gunthorp described a new Kansan lithobiid, Lithobius kansensis (4, p. 166), which he compared with what he took to be a closely related species, cantabrigensis Meinert (5, p. 177). Although the new species was inadequately characterized, it is still possible to say that it is undoubtedly referrable to Tidabius, a group proposed by R. V. Chamberlin in November of the same year (2, p. 80).

Pyrausta unifascialis (Packard) is the Nearctic representative of 3 closely knit group which ranges throughout the Holarctic Region and into northern South America, and which includes such species as P. aerealis (Hübner), P. limbopunctalis (Herrich-Schäffer), P. sardinialis (Guenée), P. canotinctalis Hampson, P. postalbalis South (=P. aerealis glauculalis Caradja, new synonymy), and P. polygamalis (Snellen). Study of the considerable series of P. unifascialis in the Canadian National Collection shows that four North American subspecies are recognizable, two of them undescribed.

The pine tortoise scale, Toumeyella numismaticum (Pettit and McDaniel), was epidemic on jack pine in Marinette, Oconto and Florence counties in northern Wisconsin during 1953 and 1954. In the spring of 1954, 2900 acres of jack pine plantation in Marinette County were heavily infested. Four hundred seventy-four acres had been killed during 1953 by the scale. Some of the timber had been expected to reach marketable pulp log size within the next four to five years. The infested plantations showed the same symptoms as those which died in 1953 had shown during that year.