Sitophilus oryzae (L.) is a pest of stored cereals and, because most populations are unable to survive on yellow split-pea and other legumes, admixture of legume with cereal has been suggested as a control method. However, some geographical strains have been found able to feed and breed on yellow split-pea. The ability is heritable and known to be controlled in one strain by a single recessive, autosomal gene. The inheritance pattern of the ability was investigated in three different geographical strains, two of which could feed and breed on yellow split-pea and one which could not. The genetic mechanism controlling the character in these strains was not a simple recessive allele, but differed between the two pea-breeding strains and was co-dominant with the inability to feed on yellow split-pea inthe non-pea-breeding strain. The results indicate there is considerable between-strain genetic variability for the character, which may render cereal-legume mixture of little value as a control method against S. oryzae.

A simple Perspex and stainless steel device is described suitable for rapid, simultaneous homogenization of numbers (60) of small insects individually for electrophoresis. Since this device significantly decreases the time taken for preparation of samples (commonly a rate-limiting stage in electrophoretic studies), it may be of value to other workers in entomology and insect population genetics.

In mature Valencia orange trees at three sites in the Transvaal lowveld, there was a variable differential between levels of Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell) in the upper and lower parts of the trees. At one site there were high scale levels in the crowns of the trees as a result of past poor chemical spray procedure. In recent years, pest management has maximized on the use of natural enemies, especially Aphytis spp. However, the natural enemies have not been able to ameliorate the crown problem. At generally high levels of Aonidiella aurantii, the natural enemies were ableonly, more or less, to maintain the average overall level of the scale from one year to the next; they could not bring it down. This arose each year from too many scales escaping parasitism and reaching the relatively invincible adult stage early in the season. As the behaviour of the parasitoids was inversely density-dependent at these relatively high scale levels, this led to a greater increase in scale numbers, leading eventually to up to 90% of the population (excluding crawlers) being composed of adult females. The inverse density dependence was also partly because the majority of single scales escaped parasitoid attack. In the lowveld, it is a prerequisite that the density of A. aurantii first be lowered by an introduced natural enemy (e.g. the coccinellid Chilocorus nigritus (F.)) that attacks the adult stage and/ or by chemical means before maximal use is made of the regulatory influence of the existing natural enemies, particularly Aphytis spp.

Laboratory experiments showed that 4°C, rather than 6°C as used previously by most authors, was a suitable base temperature for calculating the number of day-degrees C required to predict the time of emergence in the spring of Delia radicum (L.); 1 February was an appropriate date to start the accumulation, as more than 50% of the pupae had completed diapause by this time and were therefore able to proceed with their development.The time of 50% fly emergence in the spring was estimated more accurately from accumulated day-degrees 6 cm deep in the soil, the average depth of overwintering puparia, than from accumulated air day-degrees calculated from standard meteorological measurements of air temperature. At Wellesbourne, England, approximately 179 ± 8 soil day-degrees above 4°C or 230± 10 air day-degrees above 4°C were required for 50% emergence in the spring. In general, males emerged 25–50 day-degrees above 4°C (4–8 days) before females. A further 60–170 day-degrees above 4°(2–5 weeks) then elapsed before maximum fly activity occurred in new host crops.

Regular catches of males of Spodoptera exempta (Walker) were made in 41 pheromone disc traps scattered throughout Malawi in 1978–82. Each trap had a vial, replaced monthly, containing 2 mg of a 13·3:1 mixture of two sex-pheromone components of the female. Over the five-year period, males were caught every month at a majority of sites throughout the country, suggesting that they came from populations resident in Malawi. Sites at which moths were regularly caught had areas with green grass throughout the year which could have sustained larvae within their vicinity. A few sites at which moths were caught only occasionally had very dry immediate surroundings in the dry season, and it is suggested that moths caught at these sites are primarily migrants from either within or outside Malawi. There was no obvious relationship between site elevation, monthly rainfall and monthly moth catches or whether moths were caught persistently or irregularly. The results strongly suggest that some of the moths captured throughout the year in Malawi developed locally while some originate in other countries such as Mozambique.

Observations were made on the behaviour of some Costa Rican species of Phyllophaga. Studies of oviposition and early larval survival under controlled conditions indicated that P. menetriesii (Blanchard) laid most eggs under a ground cover containing grasses and that the presence of living roots in the soil was important to the survival of the young larvae of the two most common species, P. menetriesii and P. vicina (Moser). At Turrialba, Costa Rica, the destruction of young maize plants by larvae of these two species and the consequent reduction in yield were significantly greater in land which was weedy or in close association with stands of old cassava plants, than where weeds had been effectively controlled and cassava was absent. Both plant loss and yields of maize were significantly correlated with larval densities. The best correlations were with numbers of second- and third-instar larvae sampled in July and with the total numbers of third-instar larvae sampled. Regression analyses established that 4·45 seedlings, or approximately 170 kg dry grain/ha, were lost per larva per square metre sampled during the seedling stage in July. An expression to calculate the economic threshold was determined. Significantly more larvae of P. vicina were found in maize growing on ridged than on unridged land, and where applications of lime and phosphate fertilizer had been made to an acid soil. The significance of weed control on infestation is discussed.

The impact of injury by larvae and adults of Sitona discoideus Gyllenhal on lucerne production was studied in two consecutive seasons at two adjacent sites near Christchurch, New Zealand. The root-feeding larvae were found to be more damaging than the adults; in the first cut in the 1982–83 season in a three-year-old stand, larvae reduced dry matter yield by 18%. In the wetter following season in a one-year-old stand, second and third cut losses of 43 and 30% dry matter production, respectively, were recorded. In both seasons, the lucerne had apparently substantially recovered from larval damage by the time of the last cuts. In the drier 1982–83 season, two cuts were taken compared with four in the 1983–84 season. Adult feeding was found to reduce second cut wet yields by 20–30% in the 1982–83 season but had no measurable effect in the 1983–84 season. In both seasons, manipulated ranges of larval densities showed that damage appeared only when larval populations were in excess of a distinct larval population density threshold. At larval densities less than this threshold, yield was unaffected; above the threshold, yield losses were independent of larval density. Such a yield response curve was found to be adequately described mathematically by a simple arctan model; this approach allowed the threshold to be further defined and overall estimates to be made of the yield losses arising from larval damage. The threshold occurred at about 1200 larvae/m2 in the dry season and about 2100 larvae/m2 in the wet season. This suggested moisture sensitivity and the possibility that the crop may enter a damage-induced dormancy related to that observed during a severe drought.

Vast populations of Meligethes heteropus Gerstaecker have recently been found on millet in Nigeria. The damage they cause is described and the previously unknown male is described and figured. The validity of characters previously used in the diagnosis of Meligethes is discussed.

Studies were made of the susceptibility of wild-caught females of Glossina pallidipes Austen to deposits of DDT, dieldrin and deltamethrin on cotton canvas and Terylene netting. Aqueous suspensions of 3% dieldrin wettable powder, 3% dieldrin emulsifiable concentrate, 5·0% DDT wettable powder and 0·0625% deltamethrin flowable concentrate, were sprayed on the canvas at 0·36% litre/m2 Over 95% of the flies resting for 45 s on fresh deposits of these insecticides died within 72 h. Deposits of dieldrin, DDT and deltamethrin exposed to the sun during 140 days of the dry season produced mortalities of 100, 0 and 10% compared with 100, 75 and 100% for shaded deposits. The concentration of dieldrin and deltamethrin on exposed canvas was about 1% that on shaded canvas, but dieldrin produced photodieldrin upon exposure to the sun. Flies colliding with Terylene netting that had been immersed in 0·75–6·0% suspensions of dieldrin wettable powder and 0·01–0·1% suspensions of deltamethrin flowable concentrate produced mortalities of 100%. Deltamethrin deposits were resistant to weathering by rain, but dieldrin deposits were not. It is suggested that deltamethrin flowable concentrate should be used during the wet season and that dieldrin wettable powder should be used during the dry season. Dieldrin sprayed on an electrocuting target reduced the catch, but deltamethrin did not.

Following the emergence of Dialeurolonga simplex Takahashi as a pest of citrus in Mauritius, the species is redescribed and illustrated. A key is presented to the three species of Dialeurolonga known to colonize Citrus species worldwide.

Samples of engorged outdoor-resting females of the complex of Anopheles punctulatus Dönitz, primarily A. farauti Laveran, were obtained from villages in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, in 1981–83 and their blood-meal sources identified. The proportion of the population feeding on man varied considerably from village to village according to the number of animals, particularly pigs, available as alternative hosts. Using a unique host in a mark–release–recapture experiment, the distance flown by engorged females of A. farauti was found to be generally less than 50 m. In one village, the gonotrophic age of a subsample of 1523 females of A. farauti was obtained and in 503 of these the electrophoretic pattern of the enzyme phosphoglucomutase (PGM) determined. Tests of association were per formed on the data. However, no significant relationship was found between host source, gonotrophic age and allelic type of PGM. Thus, separate subpopulations of A. farauti were not identified within this village. The relevance of the results to the epidemiology of malaria is discussed.

Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry was used to make quantitative determinations of the elemental composition of plasma-ashed apterous and alate individuals of Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker) and Rhopalosiphum padi (L.). Both morphs of M. dirhodum were reared on wheat grown in potting compost as were the morphs of R. padi but the latter were reared also on oats, free from or infected with barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), grown in potting compost. The data were statistically analysed by various multivariate methods, which demonstrated that alatae of both species were more readily separated by their chemoprints than were apterae. There were also clear differences, again in both species, between the two morphs from wheat and the two from oats; the main discriminant elements for R. padi were Fe, Al and Mn, and for M. dirhodum they were Cl, Ca and Al. Alatae of R. padi from healthy and BYDV-infected oats were clearly differentiated from each other and from their apterae; both groups of apterae could also be separated but not as distinctly as the alatae. The discriminant elements for these separations were Fe, Zn and Mn, and possibly Al. The differences between alates, and between alates and apterae, may reflect fundamental differences in homeostatic and metabolic processes in alate and apterous morphs of R. padi.

Questing individuals of Ixodes ricinus (L.) on a naturally infested moorland in Wales were censused every fortnight from January 1981 to October 1982 by blanket-dragging, and feeding ticks were counted on the sheep hosts. The seasonal activity patterns for ticks in all three stages were unimodal, with nymphs and adults active between March and July, and larvae active between April and August. This unimodal, as opposed to the usually described bimodal, pattern is explained in terms of the long cold winters and short summers of this field site. The survival time of questing nymphs was calculated from an analysis of their changing lipid content during the activity season to be a maximum of four months, which is consistent with the other field observations. The precise identification of the pattern of activity, as well as being essential for the application of appropriately timed control procedures, is necessary for the interpretation of the tick-host interactions under various control regimes that were applied.

The experimental manipulation of separate, but originally identical, populations of Ixodes ricinus (L.) by applying three conventional tick control measures in different enclosures on naturally infested moorland in Wales allowed the elements of the tick-host interaction to be analysed quantitatively and the effectiveness of the control methods to be compared. From the relationship between the sheep stocking density and the numbers of questing ticks picked up by fortnightly blanket-dragging in each enclosure, the death rate of ticks during their activity season and the rate of contact between sheep and ticks were calculated. From this, it was possible to investigate the effect of different stocking densities on the feeding success of ticks. A major factor determining the much lower contact rate for larvae than for nymphs was the different spatial distribution of questing ticks, clumped for larvae and random for nymphs. The non-random use by sheep of the three different vegetation zones in the paddock resulted in the highest contact rate between sheep and ticks in the pasture area, but tick survival was apparently highest in the bog area. Combining these factors resulted in the prediction that the bracken area was the least favourable habitat for ticks. In the two enclosures where the sheep were not treated with acaricide the mean tick loads on the sheep were similar, but the lower overall use of the pasture by the sheep in the low stocking density enclosure (2/ha) resulted in slightly lower tick loads there compared with those in the high stocking density enclosure (4/ha). The numbers of ticks counted in the second year showed that pasture spelling was the most effective control method, acaricide treatment was less effective, and the benefits of halving the stocking density were marginal. The implications of these results for control strategies are discussed.

Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of carbon dioxide and breath odours on the flight activity of Stomoxys calcitrans (L.). The flies responded to an increase in carbon dioxide concentration by an increase in flight activity (measured as the number of flights or the number of take-offs). The extent of this response was dependent on the period of starvation before exposure and the level of the increase in the carbon dioxide concentration. Flies rapidly habituated or adapted to new levels of carbon dioxide. Expired human breath elicited a greater increase in flight activity than would be predicted from its carbon dioxide content, and it was shown that the increased activity was caused by breath odours acting synergistically with an increase in the carbon dioxide concentration.

Several new traps were designed and tested against Glossina morsitans morsitans Westwood and G. pallidipes Austen in Zimbabwe. The best of the new traps, the F2, was three times as effective as a beta trap and ten times as effective as a biconical trap for G. pallidipes. A white biconical trap was only half as effective as an F2 trap for females of G. m. morsitans. The catch of males of G. m. morsitans was similar in all traps. The F2 trap was up to ten times as effective as a beta trap for Stomoxyinae. Catches doubled when acetone was released at 0·5 or 5·0 g/h near the traps. Catches from traps made of white cloth declined by 90% as the cloth yellowed with exposure but were restored when the cloth was painted white.

Electrophoresis was used to characterize the esterases in Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann). Of the 16 esterase bands visualized, only one was associated with resistance to organophosphorus insecticides. In laboratory reference strains, the esterase E3 was consistently found in both susceptible and heterozygously resistant flies, but was absent from homozygously resistant flies. It was postulated that resistant flies possessed a non-staining form of E3, designated E3null. Genetic analyses mapped the locus for E3null to a position in the same region as the gene for organophosphorus resistance. No recombinants between the genes for resistance and E3null were detected. In field populations of L. cuprina from several areas in Australia, a close association was found between the frequency of E (0·97) and the proportion of flies resistant to organophosphorus insecticide (0·967). This association suggests that E3null represents the product of a major resistance gene in terms of the ‘mutant ali-esterase’ theory. E3 as found in susceptible blowflies, represents the ‘original’ ali-esterase, the gene for which mutated to one coding for E3null. This mutant enzyme can hydrolyse organophosphates more efficiently than E3 but has lost the ability to hydrolyse 1- and 2-naphthyl acetate (the substrates used to visualize the esterases after electrophoresis).

Pseudococcus mandio sp. n. is described from the roots of cassava in Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. In Paraguay, it is probably associated with wilting of the plant and, in common with most mealybugs, it appears to be a phloem-feeder. There is evidence of sufficient phloem in the roots, and this may be identical with the phloem of the stems. The mealybug is related to P. affinis (Maskell) in possessing swollen hind femora with numerous translucent pores, and discoidal pores around the eyes, but the oral rim ducts are either few or absent entirely.