The species known in America as the European spruce sawfly has been shown to be one of two species which have been confused under the name Gilpinia polytoma (Hartig) (1). One is arrhenotokous and is known only from Europe, and the other is thelytokous and occurs in Europe and America. This paper seeks to establish the correct nomenclature and provide adequate descriptions of the two species.

Early this year a complaint was received from Mr. George A. Cameron of Inverness, Nova Scotia, that black beetles were numerous in the basement of his home. They were crawling into stored milk and meat, as well as into flour bins; in fact, they showed a great liking for places difficult of access. On occasions they appeared in other rooms of the house, even dropping down into the shades of lighting fixtures. Similar trouble had been experienced the previous year. No actual damage was reported aside from waste when the presence of beetles necessitated the discarding of food stuffs.

In 1936 the author collected a large number of Parnassius smintheus at an elevation of about 7,000 feet on the bleak ridges of the Olympic Mountains in the state of Washington. These insects are so different in appearance from other P. smintheus that a racial name seems appropriate.

There are several controversial questions in the literature pertaining to the life history of the milkweed beetle, Tetraopes tetrophthalmus. I made an attempt to find the solution to some of these questions during the fall of 1939 and spring and summer of 1940. The results of this study are offered herewith. The milkweed hosts of this insect were abundant along railroads near Urbana, and it was largely in such situations that these investigations were carried out.

American students have long used the name Thermonectes Crotch, 1873 (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 4:402), for a genus of dytiscid beetles, and have accepted Crotch's designation of Acilius ornaticollis Aubé, 1838, as the genotype. This treatment overlooks three earlier references which establish a generic name for the same natural group of species.

The fact that most species of aphids at some time each year develop winged forms and that these winged aphids move from plant to plant is common knowledge. That the development of aphid infestations, on annual plants grown from seeds and on certain other plants commercially grown from cuttings of underground tubers, generally results from visits made by winged aphids is also well known.

The species ol the genus Matus are as yet known only from America north of Mexico and may be separated from all other Dytiscidae of this area by the following combination of characters: Length 7 to 9.5 mm.; color brownish-red to piceous; scutellum visible; eyes emarginate above the bases of the antennae; metatarsal claws of unequal length; prosternum and its process on a plane, almost flat, and with a longitudinal median sulcus.

Aquatic biologists have long been familiar with the beautiful and interesting larvae of Chaoborus which are found in most of our lakes. Their peculiar habit of migrating daily krom the bottom of the lake to the surface and back again is well known. The data reported here are concerned not so much with this interesting habit but rather with the general ecology of the species.

In the late summer of 1940, there was a decided peak in the abundance of the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus L. Numerous reports were received by the Royal Ontario Museum of Zoology, and a personal investigation proved the abundance of the species; trees bordering the north shore of Lake Ontario in the vicinity of Toronto were literally covered with monarch butterflies.

The generic characters of the Tetranychidae lie in the tarsal appendages, particularly the claw. The palpi and shape of the male sexual organ are used mainly for the determination of species. These specific characters are depicted in profile; thus, in order to observe them the mite must be mounted and flattened dorso-ventrally. This entails a considerable amount of manipulation, and a high magnification is necessary in order to obtain definition of the minute details.

Agriotes limosus LeConte is the third North American species of Agriotes Eschscholtz for which the larva definitely is known. It is a woodland form and, therefore, of much less economic importance than the meadow-inhabiting species such as Agriotes mancus Say, the wheat wireworm, but it is of greater taxonomic significance since it lacks the characters that have been universally regarded as definitive of Agriotes larvae.

As material increases and taxonomic information is refined in any group of organisms, it is a natural corollary that the systematic arrangement by its students should be in the direction of progressive limitation, restriction, or subdivision to facilitate either or both recognition and knowledge of natural relationships.

The discovery of the “European spruce sawfly” in Canada in 1930 and the development of its destructive outbreak have been described (3). It was identified in 1931 as Diprion polytomum (Htg.), which became Gilpinia polytoma (Htg.) in 1939 as a result of Benson's revision of the genera of the Diprionidae. The work of parasite introduction (1) commenced immediately on the assumption that the insect was an importation from Europe.

McDunnough (1938, pp. 32-33) has raised the question of the validity of Iron fraudator Trar. A specimen sent to him by Dr. Traver as the true pleuralis was treated with caustic potash and mounted in balsam. This “proved……..identical with a genitalic slide made from a male paratype of fraudator, Trav.……..Other slides of similarly distorted material……..gave similar results.” Spieth (1938, pp. 7-11) has also questioned the validity of I. fraudator, giving additional evidence that this species is, in reality, a stage of I. pleuralis in which the penes have become expanded.

In rearing the lepidopterons leaf miner Coptodisca arbutiella Bsk. from the leaves of the Madrona (Arbutus menziesii Pursh.) at Vancouver, B. C., Mr. W. G. Mathers and Professor G. Spencer obtained specimens of a Braconid parasite which on examination proved to be an undescribed species of the genus Mirax. The species in question is very similar to Mirax ectodemiae (Roh.) and examples were submitted to Dr. C. F. W. Muesebeck who has kindly compared them with ectodemiae and has supplied additional data concerning that species.

Recently I received for identification a series of an Olethreutes species from Mr. K. Bowman of Edmonton, Alta., which I was inclined to place as small nordeggana McD. Mr. Bowman, however, called my attention to the fact that whereas at Nordegg, with a greater altitude than Edmonton, nordeggana is taken about the middle of July; the present species does not occur around Edmonton until early August.

Grasshopper damage to grain is usually considered as occurring almost entirely during the growing period immediately following seeding. There is, however, considerable damage during the period from first head emergence to maturity, which may be caused through leaf defoliation, cutting of heads, or actual feeding on the glumes and kernels. The dropping of heads is usually caused by migrating grasshoppers and is noticed throughout entire fields, causing a loss of what would have been harvestable grain.

The genus Cryptochilus is based on C. annulatus Fabr., a Mediterranean species; the pleura has numerous sharp carinae, the propodeum is striate, the antennae are fairly slender, the clypeus rather broadly concave below, the first recurrent vein ends near the tip of the second submarginal cell, the pronotum, seen from side, shows an even curve from behind down to the collar. Some other European species have the pleura less strongly striated. Several of our species agree fairly well in these characters; however there are others that show various differences.