Heinrich (1956) records four species of Dioryctria from Canada. Material in the Canadian National Collection includes eight species from Canada, two of them new. Also, one of the species recorded by Heinrich was in my opinion misidentified by him. In this paper I describe the new species, and give locality records and photographs of the other Canadian species, notes on taxonomy and host associations, and a key to the Canadian species.

The culture of black flies in the laboratory has been investigated by a number of workers in recent years. Attempts to establish continuous colonies failed, but adults were reared from eggs or first-instar larvae of Simulium aureum Fries and S. erythrocephalum (Deg.) by Puri (1925), of S. ornatum Meig. by Smart (1934), of S. trivittatum Mall., S. callidum (D. & S.), S. metallicum Bell., and Gigantodax wrighti V., Mand D. by Vargas (1945) and Dalmat (1955), of S. ornatipcs Skuse by Maclrerras and Mackerras (1948), and of S. salopiense Edw. by Zivkovic (1951). Flowing water for the larvae was provided by bubbling compressed air through the water or by using a natural stream. Food consisted of algae, skim milk powder, powdered yeast, or “ground purina”.

Large species; thoracic dorsum conspicuously trivittate; mesopleural membrane bare; basal section of radius bare; tibiae without bright niveous patches; fore tarsal sepments not much dilated. Female: head and thorax thickly cinereouspollinose; mouth parts adapted for biting; tarsal claws simple; posterior margin of seventh abdominal sternite with conspicuous fringe of long hairs; paraproct (anal lobe) with large, highly polished ventral prolongation; ovipositor lobes very widely separated. Male: style without apical tooth; ventral plate broadly cleft almost to base. Pupa: respirator organ with nine uniformly radiating, somewhat inflated, rather short filaments; abdominal armature lacking on fifth to seventh tergites; cocoon fabric loosely reticulate, porous, with greatly elevated opening. Larva: exceptionally long and slender, evenly expanding posteriorly, seventh abdominal segment strongly bulbous ventrally; antenna six-segmented; submentum with eight to 11 hairs on each side

Entomologists, like research workers in other fields, frequently wish to determine whether the percentage of individuals having a certain attribute (e.g., % eggs parasitized) is associated with some other variable, which may be either qualitative or quantitative. The numbers of individuals observed with and without this attribute are recorded for each category of the other variable. A test is made of the hypothesis that the true percentage or proportion of individuals with this attribute is the same in each category. One of the methods commonly used for this purpose is the x2 test of independence. If rhe calculated x2 exceeds a specified level of significance, the hrpochesis is rejected; otherwise it is accepted. The test is described in most books on statistical methods, e.g., Goulden (1952).

During studies at Ottawa on the physioloLgy of the onion maggot, Hylemya antigua (Meig.), 29 per cent of 2,320 puparia that had been collected in muck soil at Ste. Clothilde, Que., in the autumn of 1957 were parasitized by the braconid Aphaereta pallipes (Say)2. There are few reports of this insect's parasitizing Diptera in Canada and none on its life-history orbehaviour. Hammond (1932) found it in first-generation puparia of the onion maggot at Ottawa. Wishart (1957) reared it from puparia of the cabbage maggot, Hylewyn brassicae (Bouché), collected from St. Martin and St. Rose, Que. Notes on the biologies of two other species of Aphaereta have been published by Graham-Smith (1919) and Evans (1933), the former on Aphaereta cephalotes (Hal.) and the latter on Aphaereta minuta Nees. Both species are parasites of carrion-infesting Diptera.

Though wireworms, the larvae of elaterid beetles, are among the most important agricultural pests, little is known about how they feed.

Langenbuch (1932) and Subklew (1934) made observations on the feeding behaviour of Agriotes lineatus (L.) and A. obscurus (L.). According to Langenbuch, Agriotes spp. cause a brush-like fraying of cereal stems, which results from the way in which the larvae squeeze the stems with their mandibles, ingest the fluids, and leave the fibres intact. Ctenicera aeripennis destructor (Brown), the most important wireworm species in Western Canada, causes similar injury to cereal crops. The stems are attacked underground and are shredded but not cut off

The following new species have been found in material submitted from various sources for identification.

Glyphodes obscura, new species

Fig. 1, 9, 13

Head, body and wings above moderately dark greyish brown, wings with a faint purplish sheen, hind wing a little paler and somewhat translucent in basal two-thirds. Markings very obscure. Fore wing above: antemedial band w-eakly fulvous. dark-bordered. somewhat oblique; discocellular patch obscure, quadrate; postmedial band weakly fulvous, dark-bordered, outwardly oblique to anal fold, then retracted to lower angle of cell and again outwardlyoblique to inner margin; an obscure dark subterminal line, almost parallel to margin; a narrow dark terminal line; fringe a little paler than an wing, with a dark midline. Hind wing above: a distinct dark dot at lower angle of cell; a very obscure, regular, postmedial band; traces of a dark, crenulated, subterminal line; terminal lineand fringe as on fore wing. Fore wing beneath: base and disc paler than above; ancerntdial line lacking; discocellular marking dark, geminate, joined posteriorly tn the inner end of postmedial line; the latter dark, roughly L-shaped, the part behind the discocellular patch obsolete; termen and fringe as above. Hind wing beneath: much ns above. but discocellular dot obscure and postmedial band dark, not fulvous. Female a little paler than male. Expanse 40 to 44 mm.

Records on Megachile centuncularis (Linn.) were obtained in connection with research on pollination of alfalfa in Wisconsin. At no time abundant, specimens were collected while tripping alfalfa flowers in Bayfield, Brown and Dane Counties. One bee tripped 95 per cent of the alfalfa flowers visitedand the earliest record was June 9th in Dane Co. Other flower records included fireweed, Epilobium angustifoliurn L., and goldenrod, Solidago sp. In Ontario, Pengelly (1953) found a female on sow thistle at Guelph, and observed a few specimens on alfalfa at Cayuga; alfalfa flowers were visited at the rate of 26-28 per minute and tripping efficiency was 99-100 per cent. Mitchell (1935) listed flower records that indicated a generalized habit, but the bee showed preference for composites

Linaria vulgaris Mill., known commonly as toadflax or butter-and-eggs, is worldwide in its distribution but is a serious weed only in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba (Zilke and Coupland, 1954), where it is increasing in importance (Beck, 1954; Carder, 1956; Forbes, 1957). Smith (1956) correlated its relative insignificance as a weed in the other provinces and in the northwestern United States with the occurrence of the curculionid beetle Gylmnaetron antirrhini (Payk.). Investigations on this and other insects that feed on toadflax and an evaluation of their possible use as biological control agents are reported in this paper; also included are some observations on the weedand its natural enemies made since 1950 in all provinces west of Quebec and in the northwestern United States.

Myzocallidium riehmi (Börner) was collected from sweet clover at Creston in June, 1957. This is the first time this aphid of potential economic importance has been identified from British Columbia. It occurs throughout the United States (Russell, 1957); in Ontario, Ottawa being near the northern limit of its range (W. R. Richards, in litt.); and was identified for the first time from Manitoba in 1956 (Bird and Robinson, 1957)

Carvalho and Usinger (1957) divided the North American genus Dacerla Signoret, 1881, into two. Dacerla now contains those species with a spinelike projection on the posterior margin of the pronotum, and Paradacerla Carvalho and Usinger contains those species wqithout a spinelike projection.

In this paper Paradacerla species and Dacerla mediospinosa are compared, especially concerning the genitalic characters, and a new species, P. hirsuta, is described. Distinguishing external characters of the species and a key toParadacerla are provided

Routine grasshopper egg surveys in southern Alberta from 1954 to 1957 revealed unexpectedly small numbers of egg pods in certain locations that were regarded as favoured oviposition sites for Mlelnnoplus bivittatus (Say). These locations were graded roadsides with a bare or sparsely covered slope on the field side of the ditch. The bottom of the ditch and the other slope up to the roadway were usually covered with a moderate to heavy growth of weeds and grass. In these years the grasshoppers hatched late, the nymphs developed slowly, and the adults did not mature until September. As oviposition took place in cool fall weather,it was restricted mainly to the bare ditchbanks facing south or west, which provided sheltered spots warmed by insolation. Sampling in these spots revealed fewer egg pods than should have been produced by the number of M. bivittatus found in the preceding adult survey.

In late August, 1957, a parasitized second-generation pupa of Pyrausta nubilalis (Hbn.) was observed in silks of an immature corn ear in the experimental plots at St. Jean. The pupa was incubated at 75°F. in a petri dish, and two weeks later an ichneumonid parasite emerged and was identified by Mr. G. S. Walley, Entomology Division, Ottawa, as Scambus pterophori (Ashm.). Asecond generation of P. nubilalis is very unusual in the St. Jean area. This is apparently the first record of this ichneumonid as a parasite of P. nubilalis in Canada.