The pine needle miner (Exoteleia pinifoliella (Chamb.)) is one of at least seven pine needle miners occurring in North America. A native to the East, it is widely distributed from Southern Ontario (6) through the Atlantic States to Georgia (1).

The insect is a persistent and annoying pest that infests forest trees of all ages from nursery transplant beds to mature stands. The moths oviposit year after year on the same trees causing localized infestations; one part of a stand may be heavily populated, while an adjacent area may remain untouched for years.

The number of new records noted in the Canadian Insect Pest Survey in 1952 was somewhat larger than usual and these and others are brought totether for convenient reference in this paper. Canadian sources of information include Survey reports submitted by officers of the Entomology and Forest Biology divisions, provincial entomologists, and other co-operators; The Canadian Insect Pest Review; Annual Report of the Entomological Sociery of Ontario; The Canadian Entomologist; Annales de l'Acfas; and Proceedings of the Entomological Society of British Columbia. A reference to the collection of the leafhopper Erythroneura flammigera (Geoffr.) on cherry in British Columbia was noted in Science News Letter, a United States publication, and details of the occurrence were obtained from H. H. Ross of the Illinois Natural History Survey.

Two genera, both represented by new species, are here reported for the first time from the New World. One of them Colobaea (incl. Ctenulus), is well known in the palaearctic region; the other, Hedria, is new, although its type has been mistaken for the palaearctic species Elgiva lineata Fallén.

Following the lead set by Dr. George M. Stirrett, (Canadian Entomologist, July, 1952), the following records of Mallophaga from avian hosts taken in the province of Quebec have been assembled. It is hoped that others will record collections made in their respective provinces, so that eventually records and the distribution of species may be available for the Dominion.

The following species were largely collected by the author, with some assistance from the late Dr. W. E, Swales. The specimens form part of the Macdonald College Collection.

This paper is a report an the applicability of the linear discriminant function to insect taxonomy. Mather and Dobzhansky (1939) and Cox (1953) applied this technique to problems in insect taxonomy, but the former study was concerned with detecting a difference between samples, and the latter used the function only secondarily. In this paper, discriminant functions were calculated from several combinations of linear characters in males of two closely related species of grasshopper, Arphia pseadonietana (Thomas) and A. conspersa Scudder, to determine: (a) whether a reliable criterion could be found for relatively inexperienced workers to determine individual specimens with a predictable degree of precision; and (b) which characters, or combination of characters, would provide the most reliable criteria.

A strain of Bacillus cereus (Pr-1017) was isolated from dead and dying larvae of the larch sawfly. Laboratory and field feeding tests resulted in mortalities as high as 60 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.

A positive correlation between the incidence of mortality and the mean daily temperatures was obtained in the field experiments.

The third paragraph on page 128 of Vol. 85 (No. 4) should begin as follows:

Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.)

This paper is a report on the discovery of distinct morphological differences between DDT-resistant and non-DDT-resistant strains of the house fly, Musca domestica L. Since DDT-resistant house flies were first reported in Italy in 1945-46, such differences have been sought by a number of workers (e.g. Wiesmann, 1947; D'Alessandro et al., 1949; March and Lewallen, 1950; Anon., 1950). Various slight differences have been detected but none of a magnitude comparable to those described in this paper has so far been reported.

It is important that the species of leafhoppers of the genus Macropsis that feed on fruit trees should be readily identifiable, as at least one of them transmits the plant virus that produces the symptoms known as peach yellows and little peach. There has been some confusion between the Prunus-feeding species because it is frequently not possible to name adult specimens on external characters alone, and the male genitalia, which usually provide reliable specific characters, have not been illustrated or adequately described. Moreover, there is a form in this group whose status, as a species or as a variety, has been uncertain; and there is established in British Columbia a Rubus-feeding species that has not been recorded previously from North America.

In biological control work an early taxonomic identification of imported entomophagous species is helpful but not essential, for in this applied field of entomology the behaviour and biological characteristics of species are held paramount to their taxonomic status. In actual practice it frequently happens that a species is imported, tested, colonized, and established before its specific taxonomic identity is conclusively determined. Examples exist in recent literature where one may find references to such insects designated as “Aphytis X”, “Waikane Opius”, etc. While this situation is not altogether comfortable to the worker in biolngical control it arises as a natural conseqnence of the initial and necessary concentration on the ecological and biological aspects of insect groups. It is particularly intensified by the fact that many parasitic groups are still poorly understood taxonomically.

Agathis laticinctus (Cress.), a parasite of the eye-spotted bud moth, Spilonota ocellana (D. & S.), is of particular interest because it has only recently become the most important one attacking this pest in Nova Scotia. Sanders and Dustan ( 1919) found it of minor importance and Gilliatt (1932) did not find it worthy of mention. An account of its life-history has been given by Dondale (1954).

As in most research projects of the Kentville laboratory (Pickett et al., 1946), attention has been given to the influence of spray practices on population densities of A. laticinctus.