The genus Pelonides Kuwert (Coleoptera: Cleridae) is revised to include six species as follows: P. floripennis Opitz, new species, P. granulatipennis (Schaeffer), P. humeralis (Horn), P. quadrinotata (Haldeman), P. quadripunctata (Say), and P. scabripennis (LeConte). Pelonides species are presumed predators of lignicolous and anthophilous prey species. It is hypothesised that the sister group of Pelonides is Parapelonides Barr, and that ancestral Pelonides diversified on ancient terrain known as the Mexican/Mayan block. Lectotypes were designated for P. granulatipennis (Schaeffer) and P. quadripunctata (Say). Pelonides similis Knull is synonymised with P. humeralis (Horn). Fifteen characters were evaluated phylogenetically and analysed with WINCLADA, in combination with NONA, which generated two fully resolved trees. This treatise also includes a key to Pelonides species, a summary of natural history, 24 line drawings, four electron micrographs, 24 habitus illustrations, and three distribution maps.

Genus of Itara Walker, 1869 (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) includes 10 subgenera and 54 species worldwide. These species are mainly distributed in the Asia-tropical region (e.g., Malay Archipelago, India, Vietnam, and Thailand). In China, one species (Itara minor Chopard, 1925) has long been identified from tropical regions. In this study, three subgenera and eight species of Itara have been identified. Three new species are described (Itara (Itara) basidentatanew species, Itara (Itara) dicrananew species, and Itara (Gryllitara) denudatanew species, and four new distribution records are reported. Descriptions and illustrations for eight species are provided.

The subgenus Setema de Freina and Witt of the genus Manulea Wallengren (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini) includes several Boreal and Arctic lichen-moth species: the European Manulea (Setema) cereola (Hübner), the type species of the subgenus; the Siberian M. (S.) atratula (Eversmann), M. (S.) debilis (Staudinger), and M. (S.) vakulenkoi (Tshistjakov); M. (S.) hyalinofuscatum (Tshistjakov) from Chukotka; M. (S.) nigrocollare (Tshistjakov) from the Kolyma basin; and the North American Eilema bicolor (Grote) is also transferred into this subgenus as Manulea (Setema) bicolor (Grote), new combination. A key to species is given.

I present the systematics and distribution of a new species of oribatid mite in the genus Metrioppia Grandjean, 1931 (Oribatida: Peloppiidae) from western North America. Metrioppia walbranensisnew species is diagnosed on the basis of adult morphology using the following character states: shape and dentition of the rostrum, length of lamellae, shape of lamellar cusps, length of the interlamellar setae, and number of posterior notogastral setae. The known distribution of M. walbranensis is provided based on sampling and museum collections. Metrioppia walbranensis has been collected only from a small number of locations on south-west Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, while its congener M. oregonensis Woolley and Higgins, 1969 has been collected widely within the Pacific Northwest, including sites on Vancouver Island. However, the two species do not appear to co-occur. Nucleotide sequence of the COI gene firmly places Metrioppia within the family Peloppiidae.

Monochamol (2-undecyloxy-1-ethanol) is a male-produced aggregation pheromone for several Monochamus Dejean (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) species. We conducted trapping experiments in Canada, Poland, and China to test whether monochamol was attractive to additional Monochamus species and if attraction was synergised by plant volatiles and bark beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) pheromones. We provide the first evidence of attraction for M. urussovii (Fischer) and M. saltuarius (Gebler) to monochamol or monochamol+kairomones. The highest numbers of M. urussovii were captured in traps baited with monochamol+plant volatiles (Manuka oil, ethanol and (95/5±) α−pinene). Captures of M. saltuarius were highest in traps baited with monochamol, with the addition of cubeb oil tending to reduce captures. The highest numbers of M. scutellatus (Say) were captured in traps baited with monochamol+kairomones. A similar pattern in trap captures was found for M. notatus (Drury), M. marmorator Kirby, M. carolinensis (Olivier), and M. mutator LeConte. Detection rates, that is, proportion of traps capturing at least one specimen, was highest for traps baited with monochamol plus kairomones, particularly for less-common species. These results support the emerging hypothesis that pheromone compounds can attract related cerambycid species with cumulative evidence for attraction to monochamol for 12 species of Monochamus worldwide.

Mobility of flowers in the wind has been proposed to affect the performances of pollinators in landing on flowers, nectar extraction, and pollen dispersal. Our study examined the preferences of worker Bombus impatiens Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae) for landing on and feeding from immobile or mobile artificial flower. Mobile flowers moved at varied frequencies (0.1–3.0 Hz) and in different directions, horizontal H (left to right wave) and vertical V (from en-face presentation at the lowest point to horizontal presentation at the zenith). We found that the bees showed no preference for mobile or immobile flowers. In general, we found that landing ability (time spent from the bees entering the testing arena to landing and starting to feed on the artificial flower) decreased as frequency (Hz) or speed of motion (cm/second) increased. Directionality of waving affected performance with the bees being able to forage from horizontally moving flowers better than from vertically moving flowers. Experience played a major role in improving individual performances. We also found that the bees could differentiate between horizontally and vertically waving flowers as well as between frequencies or speeds of motion.

Pitfall trapping revealed that the European fire ant, Myrmica rubra (Linnaeus) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), represents an unusual example of a temperate invasive ant species. In British Columbia, Canada, M. rubra populations are associated with a decreased incidence and abundance of other ant species in three different plant communities when compared with M. rubra-free control areas. M. rubra represented more than 99.99% of the total ant fauna caught in the infested areas, and the numbers of M. rubra captured in the plant communities ranged from over 10 times to over 1300 times the total number of all ants collected in corresponding M. rubra-free areas. Total numbers of some taxa of insects and non-insect arthropods, including those likely to be competitors or prey of M. rubra, were reduced where the invasive species was present. Biodiversity indexes for the overall suite of captured arthropod species were lower where M. rubra was present in all three plant communities but most of this decrease can be attributed to the difference in the ant fauna.

Eastern larch beetles, Dendroctonus simplex LeConte (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), are monophagous, phloem-feeding herbivores of eastern larch (tamarack), Larix laricina (Du Roi) Koch (Pinaceae). Recently dead or moribund trees are preferentially colonised. Outbreaks of eastern larch beetles are generally localised and short-lived, although a large outbreak has been occurring in the Great Lakes region of North America since 2000. The beetle is reported as univoltine, with a single, spring-emergent, reproductive parent generation establishing one to three sibling broods per year. Some progeny emerging during summer or fall re-enter the tree bole close to ground level to overwinter, while remaining brood adults overwinter within pupal chambers in situ. Owing to these behaviours, eastern larch beetles have been suggested to possess an obligate overwintering reproductive diapause. However, studies have not confirmed this hypothesis. We tested the reproductive viability of non-overwintered progeny in three laboratory experiments. Non-overwintered progeny were reproductively viable, suggesting that a portion of the population may exhibit a facultative adult overwintering diapause. Progeny that emerged naturally from the host (i.e., putative fall-emergers) demonstrated reproductive rates almost six-fold those of manually extracted insects demonstrating a propensity to remain in situ (i.e., putative spring-emergers). These results shed new light onto the reproductive behaviour of eastern larch beetles, and suggest that future population dynamics may be influenced by a warming climate.

Many Neotropical species whose range is restricted to tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) are in danger of local or total extinction due to warming and drying as air warmed by climate change ascends these mountains. While the species richness of many arthropod higher taxa declines at high elevations, those species that do reside in TMCF are often highly specialised and endemic, rendering their natural history especially interesting. However, we know little about these TMCF arthropods. One genus of ants, Adelomyrmex Emery, 1897 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), is characteristic of many TMCFs in Central America, and exemplifies this pattern. While workers of this genus are very common in leaf litter samples, winged males and winged queens have been unknown and nests have never been observed for most species. Here we report how a combination of affordable digital field microscopes and DNA barcoding has allowed nest discovery and documentation and linked male and worker Adelomyrmex. Based on this work, we have now learned that male Adelomyrmex can be quite abundant locally.

Three studies were performed to assess the likelihood of establishing the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus (Schreber) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in southern Alberta, Canada. This European species was first reported in Florida in the 1970s and now occurs as far north as Michigan, United States of America. Its ability to establish in Canada is unknown, but is desired to accelerate the degradation of cattle dung on pastures. The first study examined egg-to-adult development at temperatures of 10–32 °C (in increments of 2 °C) to develop degree-day models for O. taurus and for two other closely related species of dung beetles. Onthophagus nuchicornis (Linnaeus), used as a positive control, is a European species common across Canada. Digitonthophagus gazella (Fabricius), used as a negative control, is an Afro-Asian species whose distribution is restricted in North America to the southern United States of America. The second study examined the overwintering ability of O. taurus and D. gazella in outdoor field cages. The third study compared climate parameters between southern Alberta and the northernmost recorded distribution of O. taurus. Results combined across the three studies show that O. taurus can complete egg-to-adult development and overwinter in southern Alberta. However, high overwintering mortality is predicted to prevent establishment of O. taurus in the region.

The pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner and Buhrer) Nickle (Aphelenchida: Parasitaphelenchidae), is a major disease of pines forests in China. Its vector, Monochamus alternatus Hope (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), has been the focus of an intensive study to improve the efficiency of the parasitoid Scleroderma guani Xiao and Wu (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) by using the parasitoid both as a larval parasitoid in its own right and additionally as a vector for the entomophagous pathogen Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff) Sorokin (Clavicipitaceae). Twenty-one M. anisopliae strains were screened and the best four tested for sporulation capabilities at a range of temperatures. The best strain was then evaluated at several sporulation concentrations to define the lethal concentration 50 (LC50) against the larvae of M. alternatus. Scleroderma guani was inoculated with the best strain and tested against larvae of M. alternatus, which were constrained singly in glass vials. Three S. guani females per vial infected with M. anisopliae (strain 789) were shown to cause the death of 100% of the M. alternatus larvae they were exposed to as compared exposures to just one or two infected S. guani females per vial. This demonstrates a successful interaction of two biocontrol agents for the control of the pinewood nematode vector M. alternatus.

Cut-points to distinguish larval instars of the mountain pine beetle (MPB), Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), from the measurement of head-capsule width were determined using a maximum likelihood approach. The cut-points that distinguish the four instars are suitable to classify individual larvae from field populations collected from lodgepole pine Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelmann (Pinaceae) or jack pine (P. banksiana Lambert)×lodgepole pine hybrids throughout most of the beetle’s current range in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. The ability to designate the instar of field-collected larvae will facilitate the calibration of phenology and populations models that assess the climatic suitability of habitats and the potential for MPB to continue expanding its range.