The European pine shoot moth, Rhyacionia buoliana (Schiff.), was first discovered in North America on Long Island, New York, in 1914 (Busck, 1914). Since that time it has spread throughout most of the northeastern United States, becoming one of the most important insect pests of pine plantations. In Ontario, it was first discovered in the Toronto area (McLaine, 1926) and since that time has dispersed throughout southern Ontario, appearing regvlarly south of a line from the southern end of Gcorgian Bay to a point just east of Lake Ontario (Fig. 1). Isolated occurrences of the shoot moth have been reported north of this line but these have been short-lived on small plantation trees, or have persisted in cities and towns on ornamentals protected by snow cover during the winter. The continuous distribution of the insect has remained relatively static since 1951, and it appears that the northern limit of its range in Ontario has been reached.

This paper is an account of the distributions of the Anthocoridae of the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho), with notes on the life histories of the more common species. It brings together the published and unpublished data on the family in that area. Seven species listed were previously unrecorded there and five others are new species recently described (Kelton and Anderson, 1962). In 1956 and 1957 intensive collecting was done in southern British Columbia and some material was collected in the Willamette Valley and east of the Cascade Range in Oregon. Specimens were examined in the important museum collections of the area and in some private collections.

Alternative chambers are used in laboratory studies of insect behaviour to determine responses to divergent pairs of temperatures, humidities, or light intensities. Theoretically, they provide an efficient means of presenting two different uniform intensities of a physical factor in equal areas that are separated only by a narrow, central boundary zone. In practice. however, only dark-light chambers approach this theoretical ideal. Jn temperature or humidity chambers, the boundary gradient often varies in width and steepness at different points, and the two halves may acquire unpredictably vagrant gradients which change in slope and extent with passing time.

This paper is based almost entirely on material in the Canadian National Collection. It proposes several taxonomic changes, which are detailed in the summary that concludes the paper. It outlines the Canadian and Alaskan distribution of the forms considered and is, perhaps, justified by the paucity of published records of distribution in the more northern regions. The records for Hippodamia are based on more than 2,000 specimens that were identified by de Ruette; these records supplement those of Chapin (1946, Smithsonian Misc. Coll. 106(11): 1-39), who revised the New World forms of the genus and mapped their distribution in the United States.

Summer larvae of the eye-spotted bud moth, Spilonota ocellana (D. and S.), appeared in unequal densities on certain portions of apple trees in Door County, Wisconsin. The resulting non-random distribution introduced a bias in data obtained of the summer larvae. This phenomenon has been reported in Quebec apple orchards (LeRoux and Reimer, 1959) where densities of summer larvae were consistently greater in the upper than in the lower tree levels, and quadrant differences often occurred in the number of eggs parasitized, spring and summer larval shelters, and pupal shelters. The present study was initiated to determine the extent of the uneven distribution of summer eye-spotted bud moth larvae and nests on young, non-bearing apple trees. Summer larvae appear shortly after the first of August when eggs begin to hatch (Oatman, 1960).

Some bark beetle parasites insert their ovipositors through the bark of trees to lay their eggs on their hosts. To be parasitized, therefore, host insects must be beneath a thickness of bark less than the parasite ovipositor length. Bark thickness varies at different heights in a tree, but even at a given height the thickness is not uniform because of the fissures. The percentage of bark beetles parasitized by this type of parasite at a given height in a tree is influenced by the percentage of the bark which has a thickness less than the parasite ovipositor length.

Investigations carried out over the past 50 years have made it abundantly clear that the chromosome, besides being a medium of evolutionary change, has an evolution of its own. In the animal kingdom, this has been elegantly proved by the extensive research on Drosophila (for a general review see Patterson and Stone, 1952), made possible largely by its possession of giant salivary gland chromosomes; by cytological analysis of hybrid rodents in the genus Gerbillus (Wahrman and Zahavi, 1958) and newts of the genus Triturus (White, 1946; Spurway and Callan, 1950; Callan and Spurway, 1951); by investigations carried out on various Orthoptera, facilitated by the clarity of meiosis in interracial (White, 1957a), interspecific (Klingstedt, 1939), and “intergeneric” (Helwig, 1955) hybrids; and by studies on the mantid genus Ameles (Wahrman and O'Brien, 1956), through the credibility derived from cytophotometric measurement of desoxyribose nucleic acid content. Much of the evidence adduced elsewhere, for example, Manna and Smith's (1959) survey of the bark weevil genus Pissodes, was based on comparative chromosome morphology, but, as will become evident later, our reasoning in this particular instance has so far proved correct.

Except for occasional references in the Annual Reports of the Forest Insect and Disease Survey of infestations of an aphid on caragana (Caragana arborescens Lam.) in Western Canada and a note on chemical control (Bradley, 1952), there is no published record known to the authors of the occurrence of the caragana aphid, Acyrthosiphon caraganae (Cholod.), in North America. MacNay (1953) summarized reports that severe infesrations of aphids, “probably mainly the caragana aphid”, occurred on caragana in 1952 in the East Kootenays of British Columbia, and at several places in Alberta and Saskatchewan. At some localities 100 per cent defoliation was reported.

Lately there has been a concerted effort to elucidate the structure and function of the stylet bundle of suctorial insects. Aphids have received special attention because of their importance as vectors of plant viruses. Several workers have described their observations of stylets penetrating translucent tissues or membranes; for example, Bradley (1952), Mittler (1954), and van Hoof (1958).

The movements most easily seen are rapid alternate oscillations at the stylet tips and a back and forth swinging of the entire stylet bundle as it enters a cell or other liquid medium.

Species of the genus Ips De Geer are polygamous and the number of females in a gallery map vary from one to five, or occasionally six, to one male. Populations of Ips tridens Mann. going into hibernation in the fall of the year in Alberta, have a sex ratio of approximatclv 3 ♂ ♂: 1 ♀. The assumption has been that the preponderance of fenlales is caused by some mortality factor which is more effective against the males. More recent evidence indicates that the cause is of a genetical nature.

A generation of wingless females of Adelges cooleyi (Gill.) is widespread on the needles of planted spruce in the Prairie Provinces of Canada and occurs on native spruces in the boreal region and in the Rocky Mountains. In order to distinguish this generation from the polymorphic cycle, it is referred to here as a ‘monomorphic cycle’.

Most workers have experienced difficulty at times in producing accurate drawings of microscopic slide images; consequently a number of drawing aids have been invented, none of them entirely successful. The camera lucida, for example, is difficult to use effectively because of the delicate balance necessary between light in the microscope and light on the drawing surface. Also, with this instrument and the many slide projectors, the pencil and hand intercept the projected image. Furthermore with conventional drawing aids, it is difficult to make direct drawings to the scale required for reproduction. It was therefore considered worth while to report on a simple device which appears to overcome these difficulties.

Local outbreaks of Lecanium coryli L. on white elm, Ulmus americana L., at Indian Head and Regina, Saskatchewan, were investigated from 1957 to 1960. Information on the seasonal occurrence, habits of the females, natural mortality, and chemical control of the scale has been reported (Peterson, 1960). During this investigation, data on insects attacking the scale were collected and are presented in this paper. Eleven species of hymenopterous parasites and one dipterous predator were collected. All were associated with the late nymphal stage and/or the adult stage of the female host. Table I lists the hymenopterous species and shows the numbers of adults and their emergence periods, recorded from 1958 to 1960.

Several investigators have shown that the composition of insect hemolymph varies considerably between various insect species (Crescitelli and Taylor, 1935; Pratt, 1950; Auclair, 1953 and 1959; Wyatt et al., 1956; Todd, 1958). It is possible that differences in the biochemistry of insect hemolymph could affect the nutritive value of host fluids. Therefore the feeding of the females of certain hymenopterous parasites on various hosts may affect also their fecundity and thus influence the establishment of imported parasites or the maintenance of indigenous parasites in certain habitats. Scambus buolianae (Htg.), an imported external parasite of the larvae of pine shoot moth, Rhyacionia buoliana (Schiff.), and possibly of other Lepidoptera species, was used to investigate the nutritional effect of various hosts on the fecundity of the females.

The brown mite, Bryobia arborea M. and A., is a widely distributed phytophagous pest of apple trees in Nova Scotia. Many predators have been observed feeding on this pest, particularly the predacious mites of the sub-family Phytoseiinae. It is difficult to assess the influence of these predators on brown mite in the field because fungicides, which are necessary in the commercial production of apples in Nova Scotia, often disrupt the relationships. Furthermore, other species of predators and prey usually found in apple orchards obscure the influence of phytoseiids on brown mite.

Investigations in 1959 (Dyer and Kinghorn, 1961) revealed a large overwintering population of the ambrosia beetle, Trypodendron lineatum (Oliv.), in a level accessible stand of timber. It was decided to use this location for field studies on attack behaviour of this insect, with three general objectives in mind: 1) direct observation of beetles as they searched for and found suitable log material; 2) experimental verification by means of various ‘hidden log’ situations, with controls, of the importance of smell in the beetles' search, and 3) observation and measurement of differences in attractiveness between logs during the flight period.

Sugar beets are grown on approximately 38,000 acres of irrigated land in southern Alberta and their culture is a stabilizing influence on the economy of the irrigated districts. The sugar-beet root maggot, Tetanops myopaeformis (Röder), has been a pest of sugar heets in the sandy soil areas of southern Alberta since 1955 and caused serious damage in the same area from 1934 to 1937. This insect has been a problem also in Manitoba, North Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado (Allen et al., 1959; Callenbach et al., 1957; Hawley, 1922; Jones et al., 1952; Maxson, 1948). Considerable experimental work has been done on the control of this pest in Alberta (Harper et al., 1961a; Harper et al., 1961b; Lilly et al., 1961), but there have been no detailed studies published on the life history of the insect in Canada and there is very little information from elsewhere. In 1922 Hawley published notes on the biology of the insect in Utah. The present paper describes the life history of T. myopaeformis in southern Alberta.

In the Prairie Provinces, newlv harvested grain is seldom infested with stored grain insects and mites when first binned. During the storage period, infestation of grain depends on 1, the proximity and abundance of stored grain pests, 2, the ability of the insects to gain a foothold and cause extensive damage, and 3, the initiai storage condition of the grain. The latter, in turn, is influenced bv temperature, moisture content and the amount of grain dust, chaff and weed seeds present.

Recently Dr. R. N. Sinha, of the Canadian Department of Agriculture, sent in for determination some spider mites causing serious damage to barley in Manitoba. Previously this same mite had been collected in North Dakota and Oregon. The mites proved to be an undescribed species of Tetranychus, a genus not usually associated with grasses.

Lyman Entomological Museum—In December, 1914, the H. H. Lyman Bequest established a collection of insects and an entomological library in the Redpath Museum on the McGill Campus of McGill University, Montreal. For various reasons the Lyman collections remained isolated spatially from the Entomology Department of the University. On December 28, 1961, however, the collection and library were moved to more spacious quarters, to be known as the Lyman Entomological Museum, in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology on the Macdonald College Campus near Ste Anne de Bellevue, Quebec. The Macdonald College collections have now been amalgarnated with those from Montreal and the first full-time curator has been appointed. It is hoped that a new era of expansion and usefulness has begun.