Everyone who travels the forests or roads of Ontario and the provinces east of it must be familiar with the tent caterpillars of the genus Malacosoma. The best known of these is the orchard, eastern, or American tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americana Fab., which makes its large grey “tents” on chokecherry, apple, hawthorn, wild plum and other trees and shrubs, chiefly of the family Rosacea.

The problem of controlling human lice and scabies is a serious one, especially under war conditions. During the World War or 1914-1918, lice and louse-borne diseases and the skin infection caused by sarcoptic mites were the source of large numbers of casualties arnnng the belligerents. Since that time several insecticides have been developed which show promise of being valuable pediculicides and acaricides.

In the course of an examination of types and other specimens of Odonata in the Hagen Collection, in the preparation of a synonymic list of the Odonata of the Nearctic Region, I found that Diplax decisa Hagen, 1874, is a synonym of Diplax [Sympetrum] obtrusa Hagen, 1867.

In the present article I am describing a few unusually interesting species of Tipulidae from Washington, Oregon and northern California. The Oregon material was included in extensive series sent to me by Professor Herman A. Scullen, contained in the Oregon Agrircultural Experiment Station Collection, Corvallis. The Washington and California specimens, together with one species from extreme northwestern Oregon, were included in a small but very interesting series of specimens taken by Dr. and Mrs. Henry K. Townes and kindly presented to me by the collectors. I express my indebtedness to these entomologists for this continued interest in making known the crane-fly fauna of the Vancouveran faunal area.

Proctacanthus brevipennis Wied. [C. T. Green]. Many of these robber flies were seen at Ranken, Missouri, on September 6, 1934. Several pairs were in copulo, and one was feeding upon a grasshopper, Syrbula admirabilis Uhler [A. B. Gurney].

In some species of insects there is only a single mating, but the egg-laying period may extend over a considerable length of time. Under such circumstances there must be some provision in the female for the storage and preservation of the supply of seminal fluid received during coitus, so that spermatozoa will be available as eggs mature. This is generally effected by an organ known as the spermatheca or receptaculum seminis, a flask-like structure which may open by means of a duct directly into the vagina, but more frequently empties into a bursa copulatrix, which in turn opens into the vagina.

It is known that selenium is highly toxic to mammals (1, 3) and to some insects (6, 8). Aphids cannot tolerate any appreciable quantities of selenium in host plants (4, 5, 10). A selenium content higher than 5 p.p.m. in cotton plants was reported toxic to cotton stainers (Dysdercus howardi Ballou) and to pink bollworm (Platyedia gossypiella Saund.) (6, 8).

During the course of field work with small mammals in central New York, the writer made a collection of fleas. Those records which give additional information on the host distribution of these parasites, are listed below. Some significant records from the Cornell University collection are also cited. This short list will serve to supplement the checklist of fleas for New York State of Stewart (1933, Jour. N. Y. Ent. Soc., 41:253-262). The availability of the Cornell collection was made through the kindness of Dr. Robert Matheson, and to him I tender my thanks.

During the past decade a severe outbreak of budworm has been in progress on jack pine in northwestern Ontario, following similar infestations in Michigan and Minnesota. It has been observed that budworm on jack pine does not spread to adjacent stands of balsam fir and spruce, and similarly that outbreaks on fir and spruce do not spread to adjacent jack pine stands.

The name nubilata Pack. which has been generally applied to the species with black hair-pencil at base of primaries on underside and which was figured in the Barnes & McDunnough “Contributions”, will have to be dropped as a homonym. It is preoccupied by C. nubilata Pack., 1867, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XI, 48, proposed for a Labrador species; this name was later sunk by Moeschler (1870, Stett. Ent. Zt., 368), as a synonym of his lugubrata, an action concurred in by Packard (Mon. Geom., 118) who, however, wrongly transferred the name to another species in a varietal sense.