Nearctic mites of the family Anisitsiellidae are reviewed. A key and revised diagnoses are presented for the four genera, keys to species are provided for the first time, and distributional data are reviewed for each of the 13 known species. Three original species groups of Bandakia are proposed based on knowledge of nearctic species, but with the four exotic species tentatively placed. Adults of four new nearctic species, Bandakia borealis n. sp., Bandakia oregonensis n. sp., Bandakia fragilis n. sp., and Bandakiopsis fonticola n. gen., n. sp., are described. Reared larvae of Bandakia vietsi Cook and Bandakia borealis n. sp., the first known anisitsiellid larvae, also are described providing new insight on life history and phylogeny in the Anisitsiellidae.

Adults and larvae of the cottonwood leaf beetle, Chrysomela scripta Fab., defoliated tissue cultured Aigeiros (Populus × euramericana (Dode) Guinier) subclones and destroyed apical tips. Fecundity was 510 ± 153 eggs . Four generations occurred between May and September in southern Wisconsin. Maximal insect numbers and damage occurred in the third generation. The minimal developmental threshold was 10.8 °C with a mean 257 ± 26 day-degree (°C) required per generation. Important biological control agents included Coleomegilla maculata, which consumed up to 25% of the eggs, and Shizonatus latus, a pteromalid parasite, which destroyed up to 26% of the pupae.

A visible mutation with salmon-colored eyes was found in our colony of Glossina morsitans morsitans Westwood. The trait, designated salmon (sal), is a recessive controlled by an X-chromosome locus which is at least 36 map units from ocra. Adults emerged from less than 20% of the puparia obtained by mating females homozygous for salmon with the hemizygous salmon males; these flies have very pale eyes and die at an early age. The mutant is genetically rescuable since females homozygous for salmon mated with wild-type males produced the normal number of phenotypically wild-type female offspring and about 32% of the expected number of male offspring; the males have very pale eyes.

Harminius castaneus Fairmaire was described as a Eucnemidae, but all subsequent authors placed it among the Elateridae, usually as a valid genus and species near Athous. Neither the original description nor the illustration bear any resemblance to the species currently called castaneus. No original material could be found, therefore it is questionable as to what species Fairmaire described. To conserve nomenclatorial stability, application is being made to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to set aside any previous type-species designation and to designate spiniger Candèze as the type-species of Harminius and Pseudocorymbites. Consequently, castaneus is considered as a species incertae dubia. An attempt is made to straighten out the usage of the names castaneus auct., spiniger Candèze, and florentinus Desbrochers. Previously castaneus auct has referred either to spiniger or florentinus (mostly to spiniger), whereas both are now recognized as valid species in the subgenus Harminius; gigas Reitter also belongs in the same subgenus. Pseudocorymbites Fiori is isogenotypic with Harminius and the subgenera Diacanthous Reitter and Megathous Reitter remain valid under Harminius, as in most catalogues.

The western Canadian species of Athous are described and illustrated in detail. Notes are given for the other western nearctic species including the description of a new subspecies, A. rufiventris brighti, from Arizona. A key to the species and subspecies north of Panama is presented.

A lectotype is designated for Athous varius Lane. Several new synonymies are proposed: Athous excavatus carmeli Van Dyke is a synonym of excavatus (Motschulsky) and excavatus angelicus Van Dyke is a synonym of axillaris Horn; orophilus Harold (= montanus LeConte) and nugalis Fall are synonyms of nigropilis Motschulsky.

Two names have been overlooked by North American cataloguers: Athous fallianus Reitter, an unnecessary replacement name for Athous aterrimus Fall and which now becomes a new synonym of aterrimus; and Athous debilitatus Candèze, a necessary replacement name for Athous debilis LeConte and which is now recognized as a valid species, Conoderus debilitatus (see section on species previously described in Athous).

The cecidomyiid Endaphis sp. is a locally common endoparasite of the aphid Euceraphis gillettei on alder in coastal British Columbia. The midge represents the first known protelean parasite of aphids that may develop gregariously inside the host. Field and laboratory observations are presented on the parasite’s life history and host instar preference. Mechanisms enabling the partitioning of the available “host space” between Endaphis sp. and the aphidiid parasite Praon sp. are discussed.

Traps were used to monitor the emergence and seasonal activity of apple maggot flies, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), in unsprayed habitats, and in selected commercial blocks and farms in the New York apple pest management program to determine the need and timing of control sprays. An average of 69, 43, and 43% fewer sprays and 71, 47, and 57% less insecticides were applied for apple maggot control, respectively, in single blocks monitored in 1976, 1977, and farms monitored in 1977, than in representative orchards in the same areas using regular commercial control schedules.

Sex pheromone traps to control codling moth by male removal was evaluated in three orchards in the Okanagan Valley. The program was successful in only one of the three orchards. This orchard is completely isolated and codling moth control has been obtained for 5 years. In a second orchard, codling moth populations were reduced by sprays prior to the male removal program. The program was successful in 1977, as the per cent injured fruit was only 0.6. In 1978, the codling moth capture rose sharply and at harvest the per cent injured fruit was 8.0. There was a high infestation in the third orchard when the program was initiated, and in 1976, the per cent injured fruit dropped to 10.4% from 60.0 in 1975. The per cent fruit injured by codling moth rose to 37.4 in 1977 and to 60.2 in 1978 under the male removal program. Our data show that this method of control is effective only under special circumstances, where codling moth populations are low and where isolation precludes reinfestation.

The pea aphid parasite Aphidius smithi Sharma & Subba Rao has four larval instars. The first and the fourth instars are mandibulate. The second instar possesses oral lobes but not mandibles. A bilobed feeding structure on the ventral side of the head of the third instar could function as a pharyngeal pump. The chief diagnostic features of each instar are illustrated with scanning electron micrographs. Variability in the number of larval instars among species of Aphidiidae is discussed.

The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), infests alfalfa in southern Alberta and is known to reduce yield and quality of the crop (Harper 1972). From the literature on the pea aphid, recently reviewed by Harper et al. (1978), there do not appear to be any publications on the effect of the pea aphid on cold-hardiness of alfalfa or other host crops. Harper and Lilly (1966), however, found that some aphid-infested plants that were clipped in late fall did not survive the winter. We have observed that numbers of pea aphids often reach high levels on alfalfa in Alberta late in the growing season.

Following the action taken by Brown (1968), Ferris (1977) in his recent revision of Epidemia dorcas (Kirby) and E. helloides (Boisduval) cited the type locality for E. dorcas florus (W. H. Edwards) as “ ‘Taken on Red Deer River B. Am., by Captain Geddes’ — later restricted by Edwards to ‘Garrett's Ranche, Br. Amer.’; actually Didsbury, just north of Calgary, Alberta.” Brown's action was in part based upon views expressed by McDunnough (1922).