Colpocephalum ateri n. sp. is described from Daptrius ater and is differentiated from C. ceciliae Carriker from the same host species and from C. ibicter (Eichler) from D. americanus.

Aggregating habits and seasonal occurrence of two species of deer nasal bot flies (Cephenemyia apicata and C. jellisoni) were studied through two seasons in California. Males aggregated at upper hillside and summit stands of Castanopsis sp. and Quercus sp. rising 2-10 feet above the top of surrounding scrub vegetation. Activity began at 20 °C. air temperature and ended soon after mid-day.

Intraspecific and intrageneric chasing by male flies is described and the spacing of flies at different sites is discussed. C. jellisoni males appeared to dominate males of C. apicata at these sites or, when both were present, their activities were stratified. Marked males tended to remain at a specific site throughout the day's activity.

In one observed mating, the flying pair united above the aggregation site and dropped in tandem to the vegetation below. A comparative description of the internal reproductive system of female C. apicata is given.

Observations by other authors showing that T. interruptor attacks more host larvae that had been previously parasitized by O. obscurator than unparasitized hosts were confirmed in the present study. Preference for buds previously visited by females of O. obscurator, as compared to unvisited buds, was demonstrated. Preliminary experiments to determine the factors involved in this preference and their implication are reported. These studies indicate that the policy of importing and releasing T. interruptor in North America to assist in the control of R. buoliana was unwise.

It has been suggested that information on the phylogenetic relationships of genera and species could be obtained by comparing the amino acid sequence in the homologous proteins of different species. This procedure is extremely difficult and time-consuming.

However, a relatively rapid characterization of proteins can be obtained by analysing their mobilities with starch-gel electrophoresis and examination of antigenic diversity by the agar gel diffusion technique of Ouchterlony.

Most of the animal species have developed specific feeding habits, and this applies especially to the larvae of leaf-mining Lepidoptera. The genus Nepticula comprises about 60 species of minute moths. In general, the forewing is purple to black with a transverse, golden or silvery band. Because of this similarity of pattern, it is often impossible to identify many of the species in the adult stage. The larvae mine within the tissues of leaves, usually just beneath the upper epidermis, consuming the palisade layer of cells. Each of the species feeds in a characteristic manner. For example, N. rosaefoliella Clem. forms a serpentine mine usually along the edge of a rose leaf, and N. juglandifoliella Clem. forms a linear mine along a vein. The mine of an undescribed species on elm starts as a semi-serpentine track and abruptly enlarges into a viscera-like blotch; that of another undescribed species on willow terminates in an irregular blotch; and so on. Each species engraves its own symbolic characters, and whoever has learned to read the symbols can readily determine the species that made them.

Light traps were operated in northern Minneapolis-St. Paul to determine effects of precipitation and control activities upon abundance of Aedes vexans. Data show that the number of female A. vexans taken at the traps is correlated fairly closely with total rainfall, in spite of intensive mosquito abatement operations within the area.

During the course of a study of the bionomics of the pitted ambrosia beetle, Corthylus punctatissimus Zimm., in southern Ontario in 1959, the method of overwintering fungal spores and their transmission from brood galleries to healthyplants by the beetle was determined. It was found that a structure exists, in the prothorax of males of C. punctatissimus, for this purpose. The spores are stored in a long, folded tube on each side adjacent to the prothoracic wall. The opening of each tube is in the prothoracic coxal cavity and is opened or closed by a process on the coxa. Since there are no muscles attached directly to the tubes, the spores are probably discharged by the squeezing action (on the tubes) of the retracted head against the prothoracic wall. The inside surface of the tubes is very smooth and glossy, producing a minimum of resistance to the flow of spores. No evidence was found of any comparable structure for storing spores in the females of C. punctatissimus.

In Canada eight species of ticks are implicated with ten and possibly seventeen diseases of man and animals. The most important of these, tick paralysis, is caused by Dermacentor andersoni Stiles, and of three hundred human cases in British Columbia since 1910, thirty have been fatal. In livestock, outbreaks have involved up to four hundred cattle in a single herd, with losses of up to fifty head. Other diseases resulting from tick toxins include a paralysis of cattle by Oyobius megnini Dugès, which has caused twelve deaths since 1955; occasional deaths in deer and moose from heavy infestations of Dermacentor albipictus (Packard); and slow-healing sores in man resulting from the bites of Ixodes pacificus Cooley and Kohls.

well over half the agricultural weeds in Canada are introduced species, many of them introduced without their chief insect enemies. Biological control, by the introdtiction of these insects, would reduce the aggressiveness of these weeds; but it should be regarded as a supplement to, and not a replacement for, mechanical or chemical control as it is most likely to succeed where these methods are ineffective or impractical. Thus the weeds chosen for biological control are either: resistant to chemical or mechanical control; serious pests of range or other low quality land where conventional methods of control are impractical; or resistant to control because they are continually spreading on to arable land from hedgerows and waste areas.

For several years we have been investigating the effects of natural and artificial acoustical and electrical phenomena on the behaviour of insects with a view to the development of new methods of control.

A. Sounds can be exploited in two ways:–firstly to affect insects whose behaviour is stimulated by naturally-occurring sounds; secondly to use the very rapid pressure changes associated with sounds as a sort of “death ray.”

Studies of 19 species of bumble bees, Bombus Latr., representing seven of the nine subgenera that occur in North America north of Mexico show that queens construct first broods in at least two ways. Queens of species belonging to the subgenera Subterraneobombus Vogt, Fervidobombus Skor., Pyrobombus D. T., Bombus., Latr., Cullumanobombus Vogt, and Bombias Robt. construct adjoining cells of pollen and lay a single egg in each. When an egg is laid, the pollen forming the wall of the cell is immediately manipulated with the mandibles to enclose the egg. Usually, an egg is laid when a cell is completed, but sometimes as many as four cells are made before any eggs are deposited. Two to three days are needed to complete the first brood mass, which usually consists of about 10 eggs. Additional pollen, on which the first-brood larvae apparently feed, is packed beneath the brood mass after all the eggs are laid and after the envelope covering the eggs in the cells has been infused with wax. The pollen is packed beneath the cells through gaps in either end of the wax-pollen envelope covering the brood. Honey is fed to the larvae by biting holes in the envelope and pumping the honey into the cells. The holes are repaired immediately after the larvae have been fed. Queens of balteatus Dahl. of the subgenus Alpinobombus Skor. deposit the full complement of first-brood eggs in a single cell built out of a rough mass of pollen. The eggs are deposited in vertical positions as are the first-brood eggs of species that lay only one egg per cell. Pollen is added to the base in the manner described above.

Several thousand specimens of arctic butterflies were accumulated in the Canadian Northern Insect Survey. When the distributions of the various species were recorded and plotted on a map, some evidence appeared that these insects entered Canada in postglacial times from the northwest, and from the south. There is also some evidence that a few may have come from the north. The most common invasion was from the northwest, and it appears that some, such as Erebia youngi Holl., probably entered Canada rather recently, as it is only known to occur in the Yukon. Boloria pales D. & S. occurs from the Yukon to within about 150 miles west of Hudson's Bay. Colias boothii Curt. occurs as far east as Southampton Island, and Erebia rossii Curt. is distributed to Baffin Island. Others such as Boloria polaris Bdv. have spread to northern Quebec and Labrador. Thus it appears that there are successive stages of distributional spread from the northwest.

Members of the genus Ips are polygamous. The male excavates the entrance hole and a small nuptial chamber between the inner bark and sapwood. The females then enter and each excavates an egg gallery starting from the nuptial chamber. The number of females per gallery system ranges from 1 to 5 but the most common number is 3. This sex ratio of approximately 3 ♀ ♀: 1 ♂ has been attributed to some mortality factor more lethal to the males in some stage of development. Breeding of isolated pairs under laboratory conditions was carried out primarily to determine the variability between individuals from the same brood and between individuals from different broods. The objective was to resolve the complex of closely related species in the Ips tridens–I. engelmanni group. An unexpected result was a clarification of the sex ratio problem.

A principle of visual attraction has been used in the design of mosquito traps for ecological studies. Tests in the field have shown that the design is efficient in capturing large numbers of mosquitoes in locations where ordinary light traps were unsatisfactory. Positive 24-hour attraction is achieved under naturally varying light conditions by using a black and white pattern that is superior in contrast to competing patterns in the environment. The sampling unit, in terms of air space, depends on the distance between contours in the pattern. Comparison with a suction trap under identical conditions show no significant differences in the ratio of empirically divided day to night catches. In very dark environments, a relatively uniform contrast in the pattern may be maintained between night and day with white light confined to the cylinder by collimators. Illumination in the yellow-red end of the spectrum reduces attraction to the pattern.

Until now this family has been known only through one species Nymphomyia alba Tokunaga, found in Japan in 1932. The specimens taken in New Brunswick and shown in the exhibit differ strikingly from Nymphomyia and represent a new genus.

With one exception, the thirty-eight individuals recovered from collections to date, were taken by fine-mesh screens set in the rapids of a small stream. These had been placed to catch casualties among aquatic insects drifting downstream following spraying of the adjacent forest with DDT. The spraying operation was of an experimental nature, carried out cooperatively by Forest Protection Limited, the Chemical Control Section, Canada Department of Forestry and the Fisheries Research Board of Canada.

In resistant wheats, although many eggs and early-instar larvae of the wheat stem sawfly die, most of the effect is in the high mortality of late instar larvae as the stems ripen. In oats, which are immune to sawfly damage, most sawfly eggs hatch but all larvae die in the first or second instar.

The amount and distribution of the pith in the stem determines the sawfly resistance of wheat. The stems of all resistant wheats are at least partially solidly filled with pith in the lower three internodes whereas those of susceptible wheats are hollow. Significant sawfly mortality occurs only in the solid part of resistant stems; in the hollow part survival is as high as in susceptible wheats. Shading the growing plants of the resistant bread wheat Rescue reduces its solidness of stem and at the same time its resistance to sawfly.

The Byron Bog lies within the city limits of the City of London in southwestern Ontario. It is a relic bog lying about 300 miles south of the forested region of Ontario in which bogs are prevalent. It lies in the northern border of the Carolinian Zone.

The wooded slopes around the bog include trees characteristic of southern Ontario, including White Elm, Bur Oak, Hackberry, Silver Maple, Black Cherry and Choke Cherry. The slopes encircle a zone of damp woods with Alder Buckthorn, White Pine, White Birch, Larch, Black Spruce with an undergrowth of Purple Chokeberry, Huckleberry, Blueberry and Leather-leaf.

This exhibit shows pictorially the part that entomological evidence played in a murder trial. Some unusual “hairs” were found stuck in a drop of blood on a 25¢ shinplaster (Canadian bank note) in the possession of a suspect. More of the unusual plumose hairs were taken from the pocket of the murdered man (Patrick Martin). The hairs were brought by the R.C.M.P. to the Entomology Research Institute where they were identified as either dermestid or bee hairs. Subsequent investigation turned up fragments of a bumble bee (Bombus sp.) in the desk where the murdered man kept his collection of shinplasters. These hairs proved to be identical to those in the murdered man's pocket and to the ones on the shinplaster in the possession of the suspect.