Field tests of several formulations of DDT and heptachlor as black-fly larvicides were made in 1953 and 1954 in irrigation canals in Alberta. The objectives of these tests were 1: to investigate further the relationship between larvicide effectiveness and the suspended solids content of the water, and 2: to investigate the use of formulations containing either emulsifiers or finely-divided inorganic particles which might improve larvicide effectiveness in clear-water streams.

This note is on the longevity and behaviour of Buprestis aurulenta L. adults maintained in the laboratory after emergence from prolonged development in structural wood. An opportunity to obtain such information arose when adults began to emerge inside a large log house near Victoria. The house was built of logs cut on the site in 1946-7. Adults first began to emerge in 1956.

The adult life span of forest buprestids appears obscure. Burke (1918) knew of no species that overwintered as adults. Pinned specimens of many species may be noted with dates from spring to fall, but nobody seems to have established whether these records represent continuing emergences, or persistence of earlier emergents. The latter is strongly suggested because some Buprestis species are known to overwinter as adults in pupal cells, while other species overwinter as pupae and become adults in the spring (Burke, 1909). All these adults emerge early in the following season (Burke, 1918).

Bembecia marginata (Harr.), commonly called the raspberry crown borer, raspberry root borer, or blackberry crown borer, is native to North America. Harris (1839) first recorded it from New Hampshire as Trochilium marginata Harr. Edwards (1881) first named it Bembecia marginata (Harr.). Beutenmüller (1901) summarized its many synonyms.

With increased acreage of cultivated cane fruits in Canada this insect has become a serious agricultural pest. It does not occur in outbreaks, but builds up slowly over a period of years and gradually reduces the vigour and yield of plantings. Damage is caused by the larvae which undermine the new buds at the base of the plants in the spring and girdle the new canes during the summer. Especially affected are young plantings which produce only a few canes at first.

In 1957, some officers of the Forest Insect Survey of Canada discovered a species of Nepticula mining the leaves of white birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.) and yellow birch (Betula lutea Michx. f.) in Ontario. At that time the species was considered to be undescribed, but to confirm this it was necessary to study the life-history. This has been done by Mr. O. H. Lindquist, Forest Insect Laboratory, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and the results of his studies are being presented in a companion paper. His investigations confirmed that the species had not been named and the following description is presented.

In November 1958 a Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco) Christmas tree was received at the Missoula Forest Insect Laboratory with a note that it was infested with an insect that might be causing “Christmas-tree blight.” This term is commonly used by the trade to refer to any condition of foliage that might affect salability or price of Christmas trees. Several types of foliage-feeding insects, as well as fungi or poor site conditions, may cause “blighted” or discolored needles; however, on this tree the infestation proved to be caterpillars tunneling in the bark.

The spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens), is susceptible to a nuclear polyhedrosis virus and to a granulosis virus which may occur as single infections (Bergold 1950, 1951) or as double infections (Bird, 1959). Laboratory studies have shown that relatively heavy concentrations of either virus musr be injected or fed to hudworm larvae to cause infection and death. In one quantitative study Bergold (1951) estimated that the intralymphal LD50 of the polyhedrosis virus for the budworm is about 5000 times that for the silkworm, Bombyx mori L., when each is administered to its natural host. Field tests of the viruses were made in 1959 and 1960 to determine whether infection and mortality would result from spraying suspensions in infested forests.

Natural control factors are normally relied on to hold destructive insects below the level of economic damage. When insect control is attempted every effort should be made to prevent injury to beneficial parasites and predators.

The Douglas-fir beetle, Dendroctonus pseudotsugae Hopkins, is an important enemy of Douglas-fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco. Present control practices for the Douglas-fir beetle consist of rapid cutting, transportation, and milling of infested trees so that beetles will be destroyed in the slabs before they emerge to infest other trees. During these operations, natural control agents are often inadvertently destroyed along with the beetles. Because of this fact serious beetle infestations may be unnecessarily prolonged. Detailed knowledge of the life history of the narural control agents and of the effect of logging and milling practices on the populations of beneficial parasites and predators is needed before control practice recommendations, which may be less destructive to the beneficial insects, can be set forth.

The methods of despatching insects from one country to another for biological control purposes have often left much to be desired. When insects are sent as pupae or cocoons, they are generally packed in damp wood-wool or sphagnum moss to absorb vibration, from which it is often difficult to remove either the insects or any undesirable fellow travellers.

The ideal insect container should be strong, light in weight, small enough for ease of handling, yet able to hold large numbers of individuals without excessive crowding.

The species described herein brings the number of described North American species of Rhopalosiphum Koch to thirteen. Only the apterous alienicolae of this species are known and these can be distinguished from the apterous alienicolae of other North American species by means of the key offered below.

A new leaf-mining nepticulid was discovered in Ontario in 1957 during a study of leaf-mining sawflies on birch in the province (Lindquist, 1959). Severe browning of white birch foliage in the Bruce Peninsula in 1958 precipitated an investigation on the identity, biology, and distribution of the species. Adults obtained in the spring of 1959 were tentatively identified as Nepticula sp. by T. N. Freeman, Entomology Research Institute, Ottawa. An introductory note on the life history of the species was published in 1960 (Lindquist, 1960) and distribution data have been recorded since 1958 in the Annual Report of the Forest Insect and Disease Survey of Canada. Freeman (1962) described the adult stage and assigned the name Nepticula lindquisti to this species.

A study of factors that influence host references of the parasitic tachinids Drino bohemica Mesn. and Bessa harveyi (Tns.) (Monteith, 1955, 1958a, 1958b, 1962) included tests with successive generations of the parasites. Large numbers of the sawfly larvae used as hosts were collected each summer and, when they had spun their cocoons, were put into cold storage until required. In some seasons sufficient larvae of a particular species were not available to conduct experiments for a twelve-month period though a supply of larvae of the same species collected in the previous year was in storage. If larvae stored for one year or longer did not change in their attractiveness to the parasites they could be used in tests together with larvae stored for less than one year. This is a report of an investigation to determine if changes occur during cold storage in the attractiveness of sawfly larvae to B. harveyi.

The Bruce spanworrn, Operophtera bruceata (Hulst), is most common in the mid latitudes of the North American Continent; in Canada it occurs from Newfoundland to the interior of British Columbia (Prentice, In Press) and has been reported from Vermont and Wisconsin in the United States (Craighead, 1950.) Three outbreaks of this insect have been recorded in Alberta. The first occurred in 1903 (de Gryse, 1925) and was apparently of short duration. The second reported by Wolley Dod (1913) occurred in 1913 and denuded hundreds of acres of aspen poplar. Heavy defoliation in the third outbreak became evident in 1957 (Brown, 1957) but an examination of Forest Insect Survey records revealed that population buildup began about 1951. The outbreak continued to expand until 1958 and began to decline in 1959; by 1961 populations were again low except for one or two isolated areas where moderate to low populations persisted. At the peak of the outbreak in 1958 approximately 50,000 square miies were moderately or heavily infested and many more lightly infested.

During the course of work towards a revision of rhe genera of the Rhyparo-chrominae of the world, a number of systematic changes have been found necessary. These are published now so that they may be used in forthcoming publications and so that they may be incorporated in a world catalogue of the Lygaeidae now in preparation by J. A. Slater. This is the first of a series of papers on the subfamily Rhyparochrominae, which will be published prior to the appearance of the final keys to all the genera.

In British Columbia the control of phytophagous mites, especially the European red mite, Panonychus ulmi (Koch), and the McDaniel spider mite, Tetranychus mcdanieli McG., is becoming increasingly difficult, mainly because of the mites' ability to develop resistance to most acaricides in a relatively short time (3). Because of this, methods of control other than strictly chemical are examined at every opportunity.

This paper includes descriptions of a new genus and a new species of the hymenopterous family Aphidiidae, which are primary parasites of aphids (Homoptera: Aphidoidea). The new genus, Boreogalba, belongs to the subtribe Trioxina and represents a primitive sideline of the Trioxys-Binodoxys group.

Proper association of males with females of the bee family Halictidae presents difficulties not found in most insect groups. In the north temperate zone males emerge in late summer, mate with the females and then die, only females surviving over winter. Collecting in spring and early summer therefore yields only females and only in the later collections do males appear.

Correct association between males and females may be secured by excavating burrows after males have emerged from the pupae, by collecting mating pairs or by making such extensive collections in a limited area that statistical evidence may be secured to support conclusions based on morphological features. This technique was used by the junior author in his original studies of Andrenidae and Halictidae (Atwood, 1933) but is by no means a universal practice. Consequently, many species names in the Halictidae are based on descriptions of one sex only while in other instances the association between male and female rests upon a very shaky foundation. This paper is designed to clarify the status of two species which are now in the above categories.

Four colonies of Chrysolina quadrigemina (Suffr.) and two of C. hyperici (Forst.) were released in 1951 and 1952 in the souvhern interior of British Columbia (Fig. 1) in the hope of duplicating the successful biological control of Hypericum perforatum L. in California. In 1956, Smith (1958) showed that though the colonies were still present, the weed had increased in all areas. By 1960, however, C. hyperici had greatly reduced the abundance of H. perforatum at Fruitvale (Fig. 2) while at Edgewood the beetle had disappeared. A colony of C. padrigmina at Edgewood had also disappeared and the three other C. quadrigemina colonies persisted at a low density without controlling the weed. For example, at Christina Lake (Fig. 3) a few beetles were found every year since release, though they had not always appeared in the sample plots. The annual fluctuations of the weed as indicated in the figure were probably of climatic origin as they were similar to those for the other areas. The most promising of the C. quadrigemina colonies was at Fife where, though there were few beetles in the release meadow itself, they were common on the slope below.

The importance of the mountain pine beetle to the pine forests of North America has been pointed out by several writers (Hopkins, 1909; Swaine, 1918; Evenden et al., 1943; Hopping and Mathers, 1945). Its range covers parts of southern British Columbia and Alberta, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, and Nevada. The size of populations and the damage vary from year to year. A study of the biology of the mountain pine beetle was made by the writer from 1955 to 1960 in several small outbreak areas near Invermere, British Columbia. (50°30′ N. lat., 116°00′ W. long., 2740 feet above sea level). The host tree in these areas was lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta Douglas var. latifolia Engelmann. The results of the study will be presented in three parts. Part I is presented herein and describes the life cycle, brood development, and flight periods. Part II is a discussion of the behaviour of the adult as affected by physical factors operating under the bark. Part III describes the interaction of the insect and its host, with special reference to mortality and brood survival.

The upwind guidance of flying insects was considered in a previous paper (Wright, 1958) where a homing mechanism was suggested that did not require visual contact with the ground. The response of Drosophila to attractive scents presented in various ways has now been studied. The results show that visual contact with the ground is in fact essential, and other factors of the guidance system have been clarified.

While continuing work on a systematic revision of North American mites of the family Blattisocidae (= Aceosejidae), I have received from Mr. R. S. Soper, Jr., females of an undescribed species of mite with singular morphological attributes and an unusual association with an insect host. This species is given separate preliminary treatment in order to permit reference to it in ecological studies by Soper and Olson (in preparation).