In November, 1955 two women in a room in a private hospital in London, Ontario, were found to be affected by an irritating dermatitis distributed generally over the body. The causative agent was an infestation of mites which were found in the bedding, over the walls of the room and on furniture. Collections of the mites were made in the room on November 18, 19 and 20. They were also found clustered about a bruise on an apple in a bowl of fruit in the room. The mites were sent to Dr. E. W. Baker, United States National Museum, who kindly identified them as the fowl mite, Dermanyssus gallinae (Deg.). Some specimens were retained for the collection of the U.S. National Museum and others have been mounted on slides No. E23.95-98 in the collection of the Department of Zoology, University of Western Ontario.

Many fields near the shore of St. Mary's Bay, Digby County, N.S., are severely infested with the wireworm Agriotes sputator (L.). This European species, established in Canada only in scartered areas in Nova Scotia, is a very prolific and destructive insect. Infested fields frequently contain one and a half million larvae per acre and as many as 55 larvae have been found in a six-inch cube of soil. In such areas the vegetation on many acres of potentially excellent grassland has deteriorated to little but hawkweeds, Hieracium spp., plants apparently not attractive to the larvae.

The toxic effects of a number of orchard spray chemicals on predators and parasites were given in an earlier paper (MacPhee and Sanford, 1951), which presented results obtained before 1953 and gave a list of biotic control agents, their hosts, and periods of activity. It also gave a review of the literature, showing in tabular form the effects of orchard pesticides on beneficial species.

Apterous viviparous female

General colour dark brown. Tibia with a short proximal portion, and distal 1/3, dark brown, remainder light yellowish-brown. Antenna light brown, except segments I and VI, distal 1/3 of V, and extreme tips of III and IV, which are dark brown. Dorsum of metathorax and abdomen thickly speckled with raised, subcircular spots, some of which are joined together to form raised areas of irregular shape (Fig. 1, A). Each dark spot bears a stout, spine-like seta. Many setae on the dorsum terminate in enlarged, bifurcate tips,

Study of lonchaeid material reared from cones of various coniferous trees in North America revealed five previously undescribed species of the genus Earomyia Zett. The composite nature of cone-infesting lonchaeidae has not been understood and at least four of the species treated here have been considered as a single species (Keen, 1938, 1952). Much of the material studied, particularly that reared by various Forest Insect Investigations officers of the United States Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine (bearing Hopkins U.S. numbers), has been misidentified as Earomyia viridana (Mg.) (Keen, op. cit.), Lonchaea albitarsis Zett., L. rufitarsis Macq., L. polita Say, and others.

Identification of mounted specimens of Microlepidoptera is facilitated by good spreading technique. Although the larger specimens may be readily spread on a standard spreading board, small specimens present a problem. A special technique has been developed whereby small moths may be successfully spread and mounted on double-mount pins.

As mentioned by Morris (1942), the forest entomologist is frequently faced with the practical problem of ascertaining the identity of certain insects which have defoliated the trees and disappeared before his arrival. Cast skins and head capsules provide a difficult and uncertain means of identification; and the kinds of damage done by the insects often are alike to such an extent that they are non-specific. There remains the abundant fecal pellet deposit, commonly called frass, which, if studied carefully, is a reliable means of identifying many species.

In extensive surveys for parasites of Hylemya brassicae (Bouché), H. floralis (Fall.), and H. cilicrura (Rond.) on cruciferous crops in Canada and Europe, observations were made on the life-histories and behaviour of the parasites. Accounts of the two most abundant parasites, Aleochara bilineata Gyll. and Trybliographa rapae (Westw.), have already been published, the former by Colhoun (1953) and the latter by Wishart and Monteith (1954). The present paper deals with one of the minor parasites, Phygadeuon trichops Thoms. In the surveys this parasite was found in Norway, Holland, and Scotland but in such small numbers as to indicate that it has other, preferred hosts and that it only occasionally attacks Hylemya spp. Phygadeuon fumator (Grav.) was reared from Hylemya sp. from France and is recorded in the literature from Hylemya spp. in Russia (Meier, 1927; Vodinskaya, 1928) and in England (Wadsworth, 1915). No references were found to P. trichops from Hylemya spp. and no accounts of the biology of either species.

In this paper 12 new species of scolytid beetles of the tribe Micracini are described from the United States, Mexico and Honduras. Notes concerning the geographical distributions and the biologies of a few other Mexican species are also included. Unless stated otherwise, the specimens taken in Mexico were collected by the author while with the 1953 expedition of the Francis Huntington Snow Entomological Museum (University of Kansas, Lawrence). The new species represent the following genera: Micracisella (3), Thysanoes (2), Pseudothysanoes (3), Crytocleptes (3), and Stenoclyptus (1).

During the latter part of June, 1955, a larva of the European corn borer, Pyrausta nubilalis (Hbn.), dissected from overwintered corn stalks in experimental plots at St. Jean was observed to be parasitized by hymenopterous larvae. These were reared to the adult stage and were then identified by Dr. O. Peck, Entomology Division, Ottawa, as of Dibrachys cavus (Wlkr.). This parasite has only once been reported from North America (Blickenstaff et al., 1953, p. 377) and once from Russia (Thompson, 1946, p. 517).

The description of this species was founded on two specimens, one captured, the other said to be reared from the Liparid Byrdia rossi Curtis. As the types are lost, we depend for re-identification of the species on the description, the coloured picture and the host record.

The Canadian National Collection contains 2 specimens of an Ichneumon species reared from Byrdia rossi Curtis (♀ from Spence Bay, N.W.T., ♂ from Repulse Bay, N.W.T.) and 2 captured specimens evidently belonging to the same species (♀ from Yukon Territory, ♂ from Frobisher Bay, Baffin Isl.). Unfortunately none of the mentioned specimens matches the picture of I. lariae Curt., either in colour pattern or in size.

House fly control as practiced at present requires a combination of thorough sanitation supplemented with the use of insecticides. Farms vary considerably in the standard of sanitation maintained. The question arises whether a farmer who conscientiously applies house fly control measures on his premises will find his efforts frustrated by invasions of house flies breeding on less sanitary farm-steads in the neighborhood. To answer this question it is necessary to understand the factors that affect house fly dispersal. These include wind direction, intensity of mind-borne odors and possibly variation in the tendency of flies to migrate. Some of these questions were answered in investigations during the summer of 3951, by releasing and recovering radioactive house flies in a dairy community near Fort Whyte, Manitoba.

During 1951 and 1952 a study was conducted on types of larval habitat, larval and adult feeding, cocoon spinning, the emergence process and oviposition of Utah black flies. Most of the work was concentrated at six stations in City Creek Canyon and four stations in Red Butte Canyon. The data obtained at these stations were supplemented with additional observations, made thru 1955, in various localities throughout the state.

Red Butte and City Creek Canyons are located on the western side of the Wasatch Mountains. Red Butte Canyon is directly east of Salt Lake City, and City Creek Canyon is approximately three miles northwest of Red Butte and north of the City.

Observations on predation of eggs of Hylemya brassicae (Bouché) were made from the Belleville laboratory from 1953 to 1955 as part of a general study of the biotic agents that act against the maggots that attack cruciferous crops. In biological control programs more attention has been given to parasites than to predators. Predation is more difficult to observe and to evaluate and, unlike parasitization, cannot be even roughly appraised by the collection and examination of hosts. As a group, predators are less specific in their food requirements and less regular in their habits than parasites and consequently do not lend themselves so readily to manipulation for biological control purposes. Predators used with success in biological control have had a high degree of specificity to their prey. Non-specific predators may, however, in the presence of large numbers of suitable hosts on which to feed, be important factors in reducing populations of noxious insects. Predation on eggs of H. brassicae is an example.

The egg-laying habits of the pest species of grasshoppers in Western Canada have been known, in their essential characteristics, since the work of Criddle (1920). Methods used in routine surveys in the Prairie Provinces have been based on this knowledge since 1932, when surveys as they are now known were first made. For example, the habit of the principal pest species, Melanoplus mexicanus mexicanus (Sauss.), of distributing its egg-pods widely in fields of ripening or harvested small grains, and not in native grasslands or highly restricted, selected sites, was known. Likewise, the habit of another important grasshopper, Camnula pellucida (Scudd.), of concentrating its eggs in areas of native sod adjoining cultivated fields was recognized.

Natural and artificial reforestation, which basically depend on an abundance of sound seed, are adversely affected when insects destroy large numbers of cones, seeds, and cone-bearing shoots. Other factors, such as unfavourable weather, incomplete seed development, and damage by birds and mammals also reduce seed production, but they are rarely of such widespread importance as insects, whose damage often results in the failure of seed crops over large areas. Cone and seed insects sometimes restrict the natural regeneration of trees for a few years at a time, as, for example, in conifers on the Pacific coast (16), loblolly pines in Virginia (13), and oak in Michigan (5), but they become particularly important when the seeds they destroy are required for use in artificial reforestation. The future success of much reforestation, which is inclining more and more toward the use of seed obtained from trees cultivated especially for that purpose, may largely depend on a thorough understanding of cone and seed insects and their effect on seed production.

The introduction of predators of the balsam woolly aphid, Adelges piceae (Ratz.), from Europe to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada was commenced in 1933 as a joint project of the Forest Biology and Entomology Divisions of Science Service and the Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control. Several species were released between 1933 and 1941 but only one, Neoleucopis obscura (Hal.), became established and its control value was insufficient (Balch, 1952). The project was continued in 1951 and several additional species have been established. Studies of these predators and their place in the control complex in Canada were undertaken and this paper is the first in a series on the subiect. It results from the necessity of rapid field identification of the various stages of all predators found. It deals with three closely related dipterous predators, two of which were introduced, N. obscura and Cremifania nigrocellulata Cz., the other, Leucopina americana (Mall.), being native to Canada. Similar descriptions of the other species with a key will be published later.

In view of the background of information on Bacillus popilliae Dutky (Beard, 1945) and the reported success of this bacterium in reducing populations of Popillia japonica Newm. (White and McCabe, 1950) and in view of the discovery of a similar bacterium attacking Odontria grubs in New Zealand (Dumbleton, 1945), a survey of microparasites and their possible pathogenicity in scarabaeid larvae was undertaken in Australia as a project supported by a Fulbright award.

The balsam-fir seed chalcid, Megastigmus specularis Walley, destroys a high percentage of seeds of balsam fir, Abies balsamea (L.) Mill. The insect was first recorded in Canada in 1928 from New Brunswick and in 1932 was described by Walley (1932). It has been taken in the United States as far west as Minnesota (Peck, 1951). In 1953 the insect was reared from seeds of balsam fir taken at the Forest Nursery Station, Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Further investigations in 1954 showed the insect to be abundant at Indian Head, and also in natural stands of balsam fir in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba.