In pear and sweet cherry orchards near Creston, in the Kootenay Valley of British Columbia, populations of psyllids, aphids, thrips and leafhoppers were sampled by yellow, and white, sticky board traps hung in the trees. The psyllids were adult Psylla pyricola Först., caught in pear trees; the other insects were caught in cherry trees. The latter insects were: alate Myzus cerasi (F.), adults and nymphs of Taeniothrips sp., and adult leafhoppers of the following species: Edwardsiana rosae (L.), Macrosteles fascifrons (Stål), Psammotettix lividellus (Zett.), Dikraneura absenta DeL. and C., Scaphytopius acutus (Say), Osbornellus borealis DeL. and Mohr., Neokolla hieroglyphics (Say), and Erythroneura spp. Identifications were made by the Systematics and Biological Control Unit of the Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa.

Tiger beetles of the Genus Cicindela (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) apparently have few natural enemies. About seven per cent of the larvae of Cicindela scutellaris lecontei Hald, are parasitized by larvae of Spongostylum anale Say (Diptera: Bombyliidae) according to Shelford (1909, 1913). Frick (1957) notes egg deposirion by a “small black bombyliid fly” in the larval burrows of Cicindela in Washington State. Wallis (196l) has seen large asilid flies capture tiger beetles on the wing. He believes that the asilids attack only while the Cicindela are in flight and vulnerable areas are exposed; the beak is inserted in the softer parts just behind the scutellum.

Feeding by a number of non-biting muscid species on blood made available by biting flies is known to occur in the Old World (Hammer, 1941; West, 1951). Species in several genera are involved, but particularly Musca. In North America, Hydrotaea tuberculata Rondani has been observed feeding in association with horse flies and stable flies (Tashiro and Schwardt, 1953). Often in these feeding associations, flies of the non-biting species not only visit abandoned wounds, but also wait near a feeding fly or attempt to feed simultaneously with it.

Within the Lygaeid subfamily Rhyparochrominae, a number of species are placed in genera to which they do not belong. Changes in systematic position of a number of these have been published in the first number of this series. However, others cannot be placed in known genera and so new genera are necessary to contain these. Twelve new genera are here described to contain already described species.

The species described herein is referable to the subgenus Hyperomyzus Börner, which includes the species of Nasonovia in which the cornicles are swollen. This species can be distinguished from the two orher species known to occur in North America by means of the following key:

1. Apical segment of hind tarsus longer than apical rostral segment; antennae with apical portions of segments usually darker in macerated material; broadest portion of cornicles usually not much wider than broadest portion of cauda ___2

Brian (1954) discussed the evidence in the literature concerning whether the correlation between the length of the proboscis of a bumble bee and the length of the corolla tube of the flower it visits for nectar results from learned or innate behaviour. She hesitated to accept the views of Kugler (1943), who supported the ‘learned’ hypothesis and considered that the individual bumble bee is instinctively attracted to a flower by its colour, scent, etc., but must learn which flowers are suited to its bodily build, because he had done no work on bees raised in isolation and therefore known to be without foraging experience. The work of Cumber (1949), which reported that there were differences in proboscis lengths between individuals of a species that visited different flowers and which therefore also supported the learned hypothesis, was suspect because he gave no data on corolla lengths. Hobbs et al. (1961), who recorded the food-preferences of certain of the workers, queens, and males of honey, bumble, and leaf-cutter bees on an isolated experimental field containing plots of alfalfa, red clover, alsike clover, and sweetclover, concluded that the preference exhibited by a bee was linked with the ease with which it could gather nectar from a flower. They found, as did Cumber, that differences in prolboscis-lengths between individuals of a species resulted in preferences for flowers of different corolla-tube lengths, e.g., the queens of Bombus hunti Greene (mean length of proboscis 8.7 mm.) greatly preferred red clover, whereas the workers (m.l.p. 6.3 mm.) preferred sweetclover.

A weak diapause occurs in eggs of thc pale western cutworm, Axrotis orthogonia Morrison. It does not occur nor is it manifested equally in all eggs. As the eggs are laid in thc fall and hatch the following spring, the diapause 1s sufficient to ensure that they will not hatcll readily upon development to maturity in the fall and that hatchinig is delayed until food is available for the newly hatched larvae (Jacobson, 1962). The rate of hatch of eggs in which diapause has been eliminated varies directly with temperature and hatching may occur at temperatures slightly above freezing (Jacobson and Blakeley, 1958).

The horn fly, Haematobia irritans (L.), has not been propagated previously in the laboratory beyond the first generation. It has not been difficult to obtain eggs from gravid wild flies, nor to rear rhem through to thc adult stage. However, a chemically defined diet that will promote ovary developrrient in reared adults has not been developed, although previous attempts at this laboratory (McLintock and Depner, 1957) showed that preserved blood is satisfactory as a diet to keep flies alive. Furthermore, the lack of sperm in the spermathecae of the females indicated that flies confined in various types of containers away from the host did not mate. Partial development of the ovarics of flies fed on a cow indicated that the method most likely to succeed was one in which flies were allowed to remain on the host.

Mites, insects, and storage fungi usually infest grain that has been stored for several years. Since mites and most storage fungi are usually considered of secondary importance to insects, few comprehensive studies have been made on their occurrence in grain stored in the Prairie Provinces. Although difficult to see because of their microscopic size, the presence of mites and fungi in stored grain often leads to a decrease in grain quality. Thus, information on their occurrence in stored grain together with data on the damage attributed to them would be useful in assessing their economic significance.

Preliminary tests showed that, though Nasonia vitripennis (Walk.) can be propagated on housefly (Musca domestica (L.)) pupae at any stage of development, females parasitizing pupae less than 48 hours old, at 21.5°C., lived longer than those parasitizing older pupae. In view of the fact that the females always feed on the pupae after ovipositing on them, it seemed possible that the greater longevity of females parasitizing and feeding on young pupae had resulted from more suitable food provided by these pupae. As plans had heen made to investigate experimentally the host-finding capacity of this parasite species, it was essential that any effect of host age on this capacity, or on biological attributes of the parasite that influenced it, be standardized. Tests were therefore made to determine the effects, if any, of a host's age on the longevity and fecundity of female N. vitripennis laying and feeding on it.

Hybridization has been studied in mosquitoes ever since caged colonies began to be maintained. Aedes particularly of the subgenus Stegomyia have been crossed variously at different times and by different observers. Anopheles species, particularly some of the subgenus Anopheles, have been hybridized with varying results. However techniques for inducing copulation developed in this laboratory (McDaniel and Horsfall, 1957) and used on Culiseta, Psorophora and many Aedes make possible combinations unlikely by chance in cages. Cage adaptation is not a prerequisite for success neither are precopulatory stimuli.

In Neodiprion sawflies the cocoon stage, which extends from the completion of larval feeding until the appearance of the adult, is of considerable ecological interest. On the basis of voltinism and the seasonal occurrence of the cocoon stage, the genus as a whole may be divided into two distinct groups, which, however, do not correspond to the two major taxonomic categories of Ross (1955). On the one hand are species that overwinter only within the cocoon (e.g. swainei, lecontei, virginianus, excitans, and others); these may or may not have more than one generation per year. On the other hand are species that overwinter primarily in the egg stage (e.g. sertifer, pratti, abietis, taedae, and others); all of these are univoltine and may remain within the cocoon for an extended period in the summer, when conditions are still favourable for further generations. The European pine sawfly, Neodiprion sertifer (Geoff.), is typical in this respect. Despite its wide distribution in Eurasia and North America, and the variety of climates that it encounters, the length of the cocoon stage is so adjusted that adults do not emerge until late summer or early autumn, regardless of when larval feeding and cocoon spinning occurred.

Most laboratory studies of insect development have been conducted under constant temperature conditions. Since constant temperatures are rarely encountered under natural conditions, results of such studies are limited in their application. It is desirable to compare the effects of fluctuating temperatures and constant temperatures on insect development. For this purpose, control devices which produce regular alternations of periodic constant temperatures or continuously varying temperatures of a predictable nature are needed.

The larvae of Dioryctria abietella (D. & S.) are among the most destructive pests of the cones of slash pine, Pinus elliottii Engelm., and longleaf pine, Pinus palustris Mill., in the Southern United States. Larval instar data have been particularly useful in laboratory insecticide screening tests where it is essential to use larvae of the same age. The following is a brief account of a test to determine the number of larval instars of D. abietella in Florida.