Whilst the status of Capnodis as a pest in Israel has been considerably reduced by the control measures that have been adopted, it was considered desirable to test the new synthetic contact insecticides, in particular DDT and BHC.

Techniques for the determination of the effect of insecticides on neonate larvae of Capnodis are described and the results discussed.

It is shown that BHC and DDT are ineffective as fumigants against the boring larvae.

Used as a contact insecticide against the larvae, a high degree of mortality is obtained with 5 per cent. BHC over a period of 50 days. DDT is far less effective. BHC, dieldrin and methoxychlor remained effective for over a year if left undisturbed in the ground.

Against adult Capnodis, BHC gave results comparable to those obtained with cryolite and retained its activity for at least twelve days after application.

The Lygaeid bug described below has been well known as a pest of strawberries in Tasmania for a long time, both Thompson (1895) and Lea (1908) having given particulars of its activities under the name of the “Strawberry Bug.” Lea mentions that it also occurs in Victoria and New South Wales, but as it belongs to cosmopolitan genus with a world-wide distribution, it is possible that the Tasmanian species is distinct.

Between 1990 and 1999, at Rekomitjie Research Station, Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe, 29,360 female G. pallidipes were dissected to determine their ovarian category and trypanosome infection status. Overall prevalences were 3.45 and 2.66% for T. vivax and T. congolense, respectively, declining during each year as temperatures increased from July – December. Fits to age-prevalence data using Susceptible-Exposed-Infective (SEI) and SI compartmental models were statistically better than those obtained using a published catalytic model, which made the unrealistic assumption that no female tsetse survived more than seven ovulations. The improved models require knowledge of fly mortality, estimated separately from ovarian category distributions. Infection rates were not significantly higher for T. vivax than for T. congolense. For T. congolense in field-sampled female G. pallidipes, we found no statistical support for a model where the force of infection was higher at the first feed than subsequently. The long survival of adult female tsetse, combined with feeding at intervals ≤3 days, ensures that post-teneral feeds, rather than the first feed, play the dominant role in the epidemiology of T. congolense infections in G. pallidipes. This is supported by estimates that only about 3% of wild hosts at Rekomitjie were harbouring sufficient T. congolense to ensure that tsetse feeding off them take an infected meal, so that the probability of ingesting an infected meal is low at every meal.

Having taken part as a volunteer in the great yellow fever epidemic of 1905 in New Orleans, I was later in the same year sent by the Colonial Office to enquire into yellow fever in British Honduras and the adjacent Central American Republics.

Amongst a number of larvae collected in the Yokeskei River, about twelve miles from Johannesburg, on 31.v.1928, two were found which appeared to be new. These subsequently pupated and finally hatched, one on 15.vi.1928 and the other on 18.vi. 1928. The adults were seen to be Anopheles argenteolobatus, Gough. Repeated collecting after this has failed to reveal further specimens. Larvae of the following mosquitos were found in the same pool: Anopheles squamosus, A. cinereus, A. rufipes, Culex salisburiensis, and C. theileri.

The natural moth emergence-pattern of Diparopsis castanea Hmps. from non-diapause and diapause pupae is described for Malawi and Rhodesia and related to the growth of the cotton plant. Pupal populations and mortality in the field are assessed and the location of pupae in the soil for both ridged and flat land is determined. The effect of temperature on the development of diapause pupae is investigated. Temperatures both above and below 75°F. are shown to cause inhibition of pupal development. The investigations show that it is possible to effect a major alteration in the period of moth emergence from diapause pupae by burying the pupae to a depth of eight inches and thus avoiding heat inhibition. In this way, the majorrity of moths emerge before the cotton crop is able to support an infestation. Attempts to achieve this effect with a natural field population of pupae failed and further investigation is required. Heavy grass mulches are shown to inhibit pupal development possibly throgh reduction in soil temperature and retention of soil moisture.

A technique is described for exposing insects to insecticidal deposits on detached foliage. Treated leaves are laid horizontally on boards with their petioles projecting through holes into water. Each insect is confined to the leaf surface by a small glass ring coated on its inner side with polytetrafluoroethylene and surrounded by a heavy metal ring to hold the leaf flat. This method is satisfactory for insects that do not spin webs and are unable to take off at a steep angle.

In 1941 Edwards listed nine species from British Somaliland, comprising one Anopheline and eight Culicines. These were the specimens collected by R. E. Drake-Brockman in 1913 and by T.H. Twigg in 1930, but there appears to have been no datailed mosquito survey of the terrtory.

The present notes are based on a small collection made by the writer in January 1942, as a result of a brief survey in a limited area of the Protectorate, augmented by notes and material, mostly larvae, made by Dr. D. G. MacInnes from March to June 1942. Although only a few places were visited, the survey has added a further thirteen species to the list for the territory. Owing to circumstances, the restricted area investigated was confined to the region along the roads Boramo-Hargeisa to Berbera and Berbera to Burao, the altitude range being from sea-level to 5,000 feet.

Populations of the red locust, Nomadacris septemfasciata (Serv.), can build up to large numbers in certain of the grass plains of south-central Africa. Adult populations are always under-dispersed, and estimates of their size can be made economically only by counting the locusts flushed on line traverses of considerable length. It is necessary, in such traverses, to determine the width of the strip swept, the proportion of the locusts in it that are flushed, and the accuracy with which these are counted. Investigations into the use of a three-seat Hiller helicopter for this purpose were carried out in south-west Tanzania in 1964–65. It proved possible to cause virtually all the locusts in a strip the width of the rotor blades to rise ahead of the machine, provided it was flown at a height of about 10 ft. and at less than 10 m.p.h. and neither in the early morning nor in the late evening. A comparison of estimates of the size of the population in a 1-sq.-mile plot made by Land-Rover traverses with those made by helicopter, both when the traverse strip was marked on the ground and when it was assessed from within the helicopter, showed no evidence of systematic errors in estimating from the helicopter either the number of locusts flushed or the width of strip. Further, two observers simultaneously counting locusts rising from one strip achieved very similar results. Thus, estimation of the size of a complete outbreak-area population by means of a helicopter is clearly possible.

The present list of the mosquitos of south Thailand makes certain corrections to a list previously published and adds Anopheles barbumbrosus Strickl. & Chowd. and Anopheles letifer Sandosham to the list.

Taxonomic notes are given on eight species and a description of the larva of Uranotaenia bimaculiala Leic., previously undescribed, is included. The characters by which U. bimaculiala can be separated from the closely allied U. micans Leic. and U. edwardsi Barraud are detailed.

Successful emergence of examples of Contarinia sp. and associated parasites has been obtained at Rothamsted Experimental Station from midge-infested heads of sorghum received from India (Mysore State) and West Africa (Ghana).

Since typical pre-mating behaviour was observed on all of the few occasions when newly emerged males and females from the two continents were confined together, and actual mating was obtained between a male from Ghana and two females from Mysore in rapid succession, it is concluded that inter-mating will take place under suitable environmental conditions, although in the present series of experiments such conditions were rarely present.

It has not yet been possible to test the fertility of such inter-matings or to prove biologically that the species of Contarinia concerned is the C. sorghicola (Coq.) of Texas, although on morphological grounds there are apparently no reasons for their separation.

Two species of parasites, a Tetrastichus sp. (group of flavovarius, auct.) and Eupelmus popa Gir., were reared from the Indian material, and another species of Tetrastichus (group of flavovarius, auct.) and E. popa were reared from the West African material.

The biology of the immature stages and adult eclosion of Ufens principalis Owen, an important parasitoid of Homalodisca eggs in southern California, were studied. The duration of the egg, larval and pupal stages at 26.7°C were 0–1, 7 and 9 days, respectively. Sacciform larvae, which developed gregariously within host eggs, were motile until about five days of age, and then became sessile. Parasitized host eggs changed from whitish and soft when freshly-laid to yellow-orange and hard at five days and older. This change was accompanied by formation of septal walls separating the mature larvae and pupae. The rate of immature development had a strong positive linear relationship (R2=0.853, n=98) with temperatures in the range of 20.0–30.3°C. The theoretical minimum threshold for immature development was 13.5°C, and the required heat units were 241.0 degree-days. Adult eclosion from host eggs occurred mostly (85%) on the first two days of emergence. Although most females emerged during the morning hours (0600–1200 h), males tended to emerge earlier than females with equal emergence during the morning and late night hours (2400–0600 h). The rate of successful adult emergence was high (88%). The ratio of eclosed adults to the number of exit holes was 1.18, indicating that most adults tended to independently cut their exit holes. The number of exit holes had a strong negative relationship (R2=0.711, n=125) with exit hole size, suggesting that larger numbers of developing immatures per host egg result in an overall decrease in adult size.

The timing of critical events like mating, migration, and development has noticeably and recently shifted in many populations of diverse organisms. Here, we report a change in the breeding phenology of giant waterbugs, Belostoma flumineum Say (Heteroptera, Belostomatidae), in the northeastern United States. Waterbugs collected in 2005 and 2006 exhibited previously typical patterns of mating and reproduction: two annual reproductive peaks in which overwintered adults mated in the spring and young adults from a new generation mated in the fall. In 2012 and 2015, despite similar sampling effort, we detected no fall breeding activity in the study area. Reproductive behaviour under controlled laboratory conditions was also different between the earlier (2005 and 2006) and recent (2012 and 2015) years: waterbugs collected in recent years exhibited significant delays in reproduction (>30 days) under similar photoperiod and thermal conditions. We discuss potential causes of this dramatic change in reproductive behaviour, such as climate change, as well as possible negative impacts of the absence of fall reproduction on populations of B. flumineum in the study region.

Embryo development in eggs of the spittlebug Mahanarva spectabilis (Distant) (Hemiptera: Cercopidae) passes through four phases (known as S1 to S4) being stopped at S2 during diapause. Studies about the molecular basis of diapause in spittlebugs are nonexistent. Here, we analyzed proteins from non-diapausing (ND), diapausing (D) and post-diapausing (PD) eggs of the spittlebug M. spectabilis. In total, we identified 87 proteins where 12 were in common among the developmental and diapause phases and 19 remained as uncharacterized. Non-diapausing eggs (S2ND and S4ND) showed more proteins involved in information storage and processing than the diapausing ones (S2D). Eggs in post-diapausing (S4PD) had a higher number of proteins associated with metabolism than S2D. The network of protein interactions and metabolic processes allowed the identification of different sets of molecular interactions for each developmental and diapause phases. Two heat shock proteins (Hsp65 and Hsp70) along with two proteins associated with intracellular signaling (MAP4K and a serine/threonine-protein phosphatase) were found only in diapausing and/or post-diapausing eggs and are interesting targets to be explored in future experiments. These results shine a light on one key biological process for spittlebug survival and represent the first search for proteins linked to diapause in this important group of insects.

The prediction of the post-diapause emergence is the first step towards a comprehensive decision support system that can contribute to a considerable reduction of pesticide use by forecasting a precise spraying date. The cumulative field emergence can be described as a function of the cumulative development rate. We investigated the impact of seven constant temperatures and five light regimes on post-diapause development in laboratory experiments. Development rate depended significantly on temperature but not on photoperiod. We therefore fit non-linear thermal performance curves, a better and more modern approach over past linear models, to describe the development rate as a function of temperature. The four parameter Brière function was the most suitable and was subsequently applied to temperature data from 36 previous pea fields, where pea moth emergence was measured with pheromone traps in Northern Hesse (Germany). In order to describe the variation in development times between individuals, we fit five nonlinear distribution models to the cumulative development rate as a function of cumulative field emergence. The three parameter Gompertz model was selected as the best fitted model. We validated the model performance with an independent field data set. The model correctly predicted the first moth in the trap and the peak emergence in 81.82% of cases, with an average deviation of only 2.00 and 2.09 days respectively.

The sugarcane giant borer, Telchin licus licus, is an insect pest that causes significant losses in sugarcane crops and in the sugar-alcohol sector. Chemical and manual control methods are not effective. As an alternative, in the current study, we have screened Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry toxins with high toxicity against this insect. Bioassays were conducted to determine the activity of four Cry toxins (Cry1A (a, b, and c) and Cry2Aa) against neonate T. licus licus larvae. Notably, the Cry1A family toxins had the lowest LC50 values, in which Cry1Ac presented 2.1-fold higher activity than Cry1Aa, 1.7-fold larger than Cry1Ab, and 9.7-fold larger than Cry2Aa toxins. In silico analyses were performed as a perspective to understand putative interactions between T. licus licus receptors and Cry1A toxins. The molecular dynamics and docking analyses for three putative aminopeptidase N (APN) receptors (TlAPN1, TlAPN3, and TlAPN4) revealed evidence for the amino acids that may be involved in the toxin–receptor interactions. Notably, the properties of Cry1Ac point to an interaction site that increases the toxin's affinity for the receptor and likely potentiate toxicity. The interacting amino acid residues predicted for Cry1Ac in this work are probably those shared by the other Cry1A toxins for the same region of APNs. Thus, the presented data extend the existing knowledge of the effects of Cry toxins on T. licus licus and should be considered in further development of transgenic sugarcane plants resistant to this major occurring insect pest in sugarcane fields.