Adults of the leaf weevil Phyllobius pyri (L.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) feed on a wide variety of broadleaved trees and occasionally cause severe defoliation in newly established farm woodlands. There is little information, however, on the relative susceptibility of different tree species to damage or on the habitat associations of adults and larvae of P. pyri, which might indicate the conditions that predispose trees to attack. Captures of adult P. pyri in emergence and flight traps in the current study indicated population densities in grassland of 0.5–6.4 adults per m2 at emergence but higher densities up to 13.5 per m2 in young pine plantations, where there was a mixture of grassy patches and young, naturally regenerating birch trees. The close proximity of larval food resources (grass roots) and a favoured adult host-plant, which also occurs in young farm woodlands, provided ideal conditions for P. pyri and allowed high population densities to develop. Feeding and performance experiments indicated that cherry, birch, oak and hornbeam were most susceptible to P. pyri, whereas field maple, hawthorn, rowan, lime and especially ash were resistant. Adult female P. pyri emerged in May reproductively immature and fed on tree foliage for 15.9±0.9 days before laying their first batch of eggs. Adults lived for 33.3±1.5 days, on average, and females laid a mean of 191.9±34.5 eggs (maximum=589) during their lifetime. Eggs hatched after 16–20 days. During 2003 and 2004, 11–16% of adult P. pyri were parasitised by Pygostylus falcatus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and 19–29% were parasitised by Rondania fasciata (Diptera: Tachinidae).

Light has a substantial effect on the behaviour and physiology of nocturnal moths. Ectropis grisescens is a major nocturnal tea pest in China, and light traps are commonly used to control geometrid moths because of their positive phototaxis. However, some moths gather around light traps and enter the light adaptation state, which decreases the efficacy of light traps in controlling this pest. We identified opsin genes and the spectral sensitivities of the photoreceptors of E. grisescens moths. We also determined the effects of several monochromatic lights on opsin gene expression and light adaptation. We detected three types of opsin genes and six spectral sensitive peaks (at 370, 390, 480, 530, 550, and 580 nm). We also observed significant changes in the diurnal rhythm of opsin gene expression under different light conditions. When active males were suddenly exposed to different monochromatic lights, they quickly entered the light adaptation state, and the adaptation time was negatively correlated with the light intensity. Males were most sensitive to 390 nm wavelengths, followed by 544 nm, 457 nm, and 593 nm. Red light (627 nm) did not affect the activity of E. grisescens males but had detectable physiological effects.

Armored scale insects and their primary bacterial endosymbionts show nearly identical patterns of co-diversification when viewed at the family level, though the persistence of these patterns at the species level has not been explored in this group. Therefore we investigated genealogical patterns of co-diversification near the species level between the primary endosymbiont Uzinura diaspidicola and its hosts in the Chionaspis pinifoliae–Chionaspis heterophyllae species complex. To do this we generated DNA sequence data from three endosymbiont loci (rspB, GroEL, and 16S) and analyzed each locus independently using statistical parsimony network analyses and as a concatenated dataset using Bayesian phylogenetic reconstructions. We found that for two endosymbiont loci, 16S and GroEL, sequences from U. diaspidicola were broadly associated with host species designations, while for rspB this pattern was less clear as C. heterophyllae (species S1) shared haplotypes with several other Chionaspis species. We then compared the topological congruence of the phylogenetic reconstructions generated from a concatenated dataset of endosymbiont loci (including all three loci, above) to that from a concatenated dataset of armored scale hosts, using published data from two nuclear loci (28S and EF1α) and one mitochondrial locus (COI–COII) from the armored scale hosts. We calculated whether the two topologies were congruent using the Shimodaira–Hasegawa test. We found no significant differences (P = 0.4892) between the topologies suggesting that, at least at this level of resolution, co-diversification of U. diaspidicola with its armored scale hosts also occurs near the species level. This is the first such study of co-speciation at the species level between U. diaspidicola and a group of armored scale insects.

The brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens Stål (BPH) can be found year-round in tropical region and causes severe damage to rice. Although there has been documented BPH damage to rice crops in the past decade in Cambodia, the extent of this epidemic is poorly understood. Here, we examined the time variation of BPH population in the abundance of morphotypes in 13 main rice-producing provinces (86 sites) by aspirator method and in the Takeo Province (five sites) by yellow sticky trap method. At least three generations were observed during the 3-month collection period in the rainy growing season. Regarding the occurrence of BPH morphotypes, in July the macropterous adults were restricted to south Cambodia and in August all morphotypes, adults (macropterous and brachypterous) and nymphs, appeared in all sampling sites. To explain the difference of regional distribution, the genetic differentiation was analyzed in south and northwest Cambodia (three sites) by using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) analysis via genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) using next-generation sequencing. The 2455 SNPs obtained by GBS clarified the three sub-populations and they corresponded to the expected dissemination patterns. These results provide a clue to understand the differentiation and epidemic of BPH in Cambodia.

Genes involved in melanin production directly impact insect pigmentation and can affect diverse physiology and behaviours. The role these genes have on sex behaviour, however, is unclear. In the present study, the crucial melanin pigment gene black was functionally characterised in an urban pest, the German cockroach, Blattella germanica. RNAi knockdown of B. germanica black (Bgblack) had no effect on survival, but did result in black pigmentation of the thoraxes, abdomens, heads, wings, legs, antennae, and cerci due to cuticular accumulation of melanin. Sex-specific variation in the pigmentation pattern was apparent, with females exhibiting darker coloration on the abdomen and thorax than males. Bgblack knockdown also resulted in wing deformation and negatively impacted the contact sex pheromone-based courtship behaviour of males. This study provides evidence for black function in multiple aspects of B. germanica biology and opens new avenues of exploration for novel pest control strategies.

Species records of Sphingidae taken in Trinidad were kept from 1968 to 1979. Seventy–five species and one subspecies were taken, including several new records for the island. The numbers of sphingids taken in Robinson light–traps equipped with 125–watt mercury–arc lamps were recorded over a period of eight years at St. Augustine, Trinidad, and the data analysed. The species abundance distribution was found to be well–fitted by the log–normal series. Data were examined for trends and periodicities, and the variance was found to be largely accounted for by three principal factors. A long–term decline in catch was observed in one trap due to the growth of screening vegetation. Annual variation in catch was found to correlate with the annual pattern of precipitation, with higher catches during the rainy season, although some species differences were detectable. Monthly variation in catch was found to correspond with the cycle of lunar illumination, being significantly depressed with increasing brightness. Interspecific differences in the response to moonlight were also detected. The influence of screening effects on the observed periodicities is discussed in relation to the siting of the traps. Times of commencement of flight activity were recorded, and the relationship between time of capture and activity is discussed. Apart from one species, the sex ratio of captured sphingids was significantly male-biased. Data from three traps were compared with each other and with those from other tropical locations.

Alarodia nana (Möschler) (Lepidoptera, Limacodidae) is a major pest of Citrus in Jamaica. An outbreak of the larvae, the ‘ slug caterpillar ’, may result in severe defoliation. All stages are found on the foliage and are present throughtout the year; the adults are inactive by day and appear to be weak fliers.

Earlier attempts to breed the insect in the laboratory had been unsuccessful, and, whereas attempts at control had indicated that malathion was effective against the larvae, reingestation had invariably taken place, well-grown larvae being found five weeks after treatment.

In the present work, done in 1963–4, adults that emerged from field-collected cocoons held in wire-mesh cages over Citrus plants in the laboratory mated on the night of emergence and the females oviposited readily on the following night. A technique for rearing individual larvae and for measuring their head capsules is described. In the laboratory at a mean midday temperature of about 27°C., the incubation period of the eggs was 6–8 days, and the durations of the larval and pupal phases 25–42 and 14–19 days, respectively.

Results of a search for secondary host-plants from which reinfestation might take place were negative. Observations of emergence in the laboratory of adults from cocoons collected just before and just after the application to an orchard of a low-volume malathion spray derived from a 57 per cent. emulsifiable concentrate by dilution at the rate of 1: 80 in water showed that many pupae had survived the application, and suggested that reinfestation might arise from moths emerging from such pupae.

A field trial comprising two application of the low-volume spray of malathion was carried out; the second application, designed to destroy larvae derived from pupae that had survived the first application, was made after an interval of 312; weeks and was completely successcful.

Very late on a dark Saturday night in 1953, in the town of Kumasi in what was then the Gold Coast (Ghana), a semi-literate Tribal Policeman accosted a totally illiterate and inebriated employee of mine called Awuni Farafara, with the words ‘Who be You’. Awuni's reply of ‘I be Me’, caused the policeman to retort ‘You Lie!’ and the luckless Awuni was incarcerated for ‘failing to identify himself and thereby hindering the police in the performance of their duty’.

My plea, on his behalf, that Awuni's reply to the policeman was perfectly correct was rejected on the grounds that, ‘Me was not his given name; Me was not the name by which he was known; and Me was not the name by which the police could check their records to see what was known about him’. It further transpired that even if Awuni had given his correct name he would still have been arrested, ‘because it could have been a false name leading the police to false information in their records’. Awuni it seemed was destined to remain in jail until ‘he had been properly identified by someone with the authority to do so’. I had such authority; I did properly identify him; and he was released.

Enquiries are frequently made through the Entomological Research Committee with reference to TINEINA bred from cotton, and as the notes on Gelechia gossypiella, Sndrs., published by Lord Walsingham in Fauna Hawaiiensis [1. 731–4 (1907)] are not generally accessible, I have been requested to revise these notes and reprint them with additional information on gossypiella and two species of Pyroderces. It is quite clear that the Gelechia does immense damage to the cotton, attacking the seeds in the boll, but what damage (if any) is actually occasioned by Pyroderces simplex, Wlsm. (= gossypiella, Wlsm.), and rileyi, Wlsm., is not manifest; it would seem that these species are associated with cotton already injured by damp or other insects rather than themselves being the cause of injury. Further information will doubtless be supplied now that the names are available.

The larvae of the three common species of Ephestia, E. kühniella, Zell., E. elutella, Hb., and E. cautella, Wik. , are serious pests of stored food products, particularly cereals, dried fruits, nuts, and cacao. These species often occur together on stored foods, e.g., E. elutella and E. cautellaon dried fruit, or E. kühniella and E. elutellaon grain. Sometimes all three are found together on the same product. To know what species are present is of considerable importance, since they differ in the amount of damage they are likely to do, in their resistance to fumigants, in the frequency with which they are recorded as pests of Other products, etc. It has not hitherto been possible to identify the larvae with certainty except by breeding them out, which is unsatisfactory, both because of the time it takes and because it frequently happens that many of the larvae confined in breeding cages die of “wilt.”

The genus Pagria, as will be seen from the following records, contains many injurious species feeding on various species of beans, etc. These have all been forwarded to the Imperial Institute of Entomology from time to time for identification :—

Type (female) and two other females from Kuala Lumpur (Dr. A. T. Stanton) and one female from Selangor, Malacca (H. N. Ridley, 1896), this last being in the British Museum collection.

The effect of aerially sprayed 5 per cent. DDT solution against Anopheline larvae and adults has been investigated.

An account is given of a rapid field method for estimating the concentration in milligrammes per square metre.

At a concentration of 2–3 mg. per square metre, aerially sprayed DDT solution had little effect on Anopheline larvae breeding in water completely covered with a species of Limnanthemum. Also at this concentration tall grass gave partial protection, whereas in open water there was a complete kill.

The residual effect of DDT at a concentration of 2–3 mg. per square metre did not last longer than six days.

Under negligible wind conditions, resulting in a vertically falling spray, there was no penetration into huts even when situated in the open.

Drastic filtration of the spray resulted in a fall in the concentration from 2 to 3 mg. per square metre in the open to less than ·05 mg. per square metre under heavy shade, consequently shrubs at ground level in heavy wooded areas were greatly protected from contamination with DDT and afforded practically safe resting places for adults.

Ever since forest entomologists began to inquire into the interrelation between the action of the forester and the prevalence of noxious insects, the pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) has been quoted as a classical example of what unfortunate results large clean cuttings and planting on and in the vicinity of the cut-over areas may produce. This is due to the fact that the females oviposit under the bark of the stumps, where the larvae make their long tunnels far down into the roots of the trees and that large clean cuttings offer them greatly increased facilities of ovipositing in suitable places. At the same time the great number of young pine—or spruce-plants—offer the emerging weevils plenty of tender and nourishing food. The same thing happens if in the vicinity of a successful plantation an area is cut over ; the only difference being that in this case the young plants are attacked in the spring following the cutting by weevils attracted by the smell of the stumps but not yet sexually mature until they have fed on the young plants, whereas in the former case the injury appears 2–3 years after the cutting, when the beetles of the next generation appear.

Trials were carried out, at two places in Tanganyika, on the underground storage in sealed pits of maize of high moisture content. The average moisture content of the maize when placed in the two pits was 16·9 and 14·8 per cent., whilst the general level of insect infestation was very light and fairly light, respectively. The predominant species was Calandra oryzae (L.); Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.) and Tribolium castaneum (Hbst.) were also present.

The maize was kept in the sealed pits for 144 and 374 days, respectively. Samples taken at intervals showed that the insect infestation died out early, and there was no increase in insect damage. Other changes, unconnected with insect infestation, took place, and conditioning and admixture of a more palatable maize was necessary before grain from the pits could be offered to the public.

It is concluded that long-term underground storage of maize of high moisture content is not a practical proposition under tropical conditions owing to the deterioration that occurs in the grain.

As Tirathaba rufivena, Walk., is proving to be one of the important minor pests of coconuts in the Federated Malay States, some attention has recently been paid to the parasites of this Pyralid moth.

Three species of Braconidae have now been bred in Demerara from the larva of the cane-boring moth, Diatraea saccharalis: Ipobracon grenadensis, Ashm., which I have previously mentioned (Ann. Mag. N.H. (8) xx, 1917, p. 244), and Ipobracon saccharalis, sp. n., both of which belong to the subfamily Braconinae; and Microdus diatraeae, sp. n., which belongs to the subfamily Agathinae.