For 5 days in May 1980, the drift of aquatic insects was studied in 3 streams draining bogs treated with temephos granules for mosquito larvae control, around Gagnon (51°52′ N, 68 °10′ W) in Subarctic Quebec. In the bogs the residual activity of temephos against mosquito larvae decreased from 100% to 0% in 5 days. While a control stream showed no change in drift, in the 3 streams exposed to temephos drift density was increased by an average of 6.4 × the pre-treatment level. This increase was significant for Plecoptera (11.8 ×), Ephemeroptera (4.7 ×) and Diptera (3 ×), but not for Trichoptera or other lotic insects. The increase in each order was respectively due to Podmosta macdunnoughi (Nemouridae), Baetis spp. (Baetidae), and Chironomidae. A principal component analysis separates samples taken post-treatment from pre-treatment or control stream samples (factor 1) and samples taken in the different streams (factor 2). The data suggest that temephos, when applied to bogs for mosquito control, may affect lotic insect drift in small streams draining these bogs, and that P. macdunnoughi is particularly sensitive to this organophosphorous insecticide.

Cardiastethus borealis n. sp. is described from Canada, and Melanocoris longirostris n. sp. from Canada and western United States. Two species described from Europe, Acompocoris pygmaeus (Fallen) and Temnostethus gracilis Horvath, are recorded for the first time from North America. Adults and male genital claspers are illustrated and scanning electron micrographs of their osteolar canals are included.

Releases of chemosterilized stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), that equalled existing field populations (1:1 ratio) markedly reduced a field population in Florida. The released insects were relatively long lived in the field and did not migrate far from the nearest source of food and oviposition medium.

Argynnis Lais.

Male.—Expands 2 inches.

Upper side uniform bright red fulvous, slightly brown about bases of wings; the black markings all delicate; both wings bordered by a double line.

Under side of primaries pale cinnamon-red, buff in upper outer part of cell and from costa to first median nervule; a brown patch at apex and another before apex, on which are two silver spots; the upper submarginal spots silvered. Secondaries have the area from base to outside second row of spots yellow, mottled with dark brown; the belt beyond same spots clear yellow, the margin dark brown; all the spots well silvered, rather small, those of the discal and second rows slightly edged on upper side by black.

As a result of breeding carried on in the course of Insect Faunal Survey in the Maritime Provinces, combined with a study of genitalic characters, it has been found that the present application of names, especially in the alnivorella group and the so-called “red-winged forms”, is very faulty. More species, similar in general appearance but easily differrentiated on male genital characters, have been found to occur than has been previously supposed; it is with a view of straightening out the nomenclature that the following notes have been prepared.

Green lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) are commercially available augmentative biological control agents. Despite centuries of recognition as beneficial insects (Darwin 1800), scant information can be found describing what lacewing larvae prey upon in the field when several different prey species are present (New 1975). I assessed the types of prey that Chrysoperla plorabunda (Fitch) larvae consume when they are released on peas, Pisum sativum L. (Fabaceae), in western Washington. In 1997, two field assistants and I made observations at three sites: the Rent's Due Ranch (RDR: 48°14′N, 122°22′W), an organic farm located just outside Stanwood, Washington, and two research farms (Sumner: 47°11′N, 122°13′W; and Fife: 47°12′N, 122°20′W) in the Washington State University extension station system. Planting dates differed among these sites; at RDR, peas were planted in the spring, whereas we planted peas at the Sumner and Fife farms in June and July, respectively. Despite this and other differences, the peas at each site harbor similar insect communities (unpublished data).

Hypogastrura (Mucrella) arborea sp.nov. is described from a mature sitka spruce forest on Vancouver Island. Specimens occurred both in ground litter and in epiphytic moss in the canopy. The new species differs from the four other species of the subgenus by the absence of anal spines and the presence of 2-3-2 clavate tibiotarsal hairs.

In connection with an attempt at the biological control of the weed Cordia macrostachya in Mauritius (see Simmonds 1948) information was required as to the effect on the plant of periodic defoliation similar to that caused by leaf-eating beetles, two species of which showed promise for introduction from the West Indies against the weed. In spite of the obvious general importance of the effect that defoliation by insects has on plants very little work has been done to determine in any particular case the manner in which a plant reacts to damage of this nature. With Cordia it was particularly important to ascertain what effect, if any, defoliation has on inflorescence and seed production.

Three North American species of Latalus and four of Quontus were listed by Oman (1999). Two of these are conspecific with a third and three new species are described below. Two of the previously described species have not been found in Canada and are not discussed here. They are Deltocephalus latidens Sanders and DeLong (1919, p. 234) and Latalus uncinatus Beamer and Tuthill (1934, p. 6). They are distinguished by genitalic characters described in the original descriptions. Quontus Oman (1949) is treated here as a synonym of Latalus DeLong and Sleesman (1929), as the distinctions given by Oman (1949) intergrade and do not always hold good. Canadian species of Latalus apparently inhabit grasslands. The best specific characters are in the internal male genitalia, though the female seventh sternite shows valid characters in some species.

In February 1976, first instar nymphs of a mealybug were found overwintering in bark crevices of cherry trees at Penticton, B.C. As these were much smaller than and distinctive from overwintering second and third instar nymphs of the apple mealybug, Phenacoccus aceris Signoret, which were present in large numbers, they were collected and reared to the adult stage on small cherry trees in a greenhouse. Mature fernales were identified by Dr. W. R. Richards, Biosystematics Research Institute, Ottawa as the Comstock mealybug, Pseudococcus comstocki (Kuwana).

Sitomyzus was erected for a grass-feeding species of aphid, S. vibei H.R.L. which is known to occur only in Greenland (Hille Ris Lambers, 1952). In this paper a second species is desdribed from British Columbia, and a third, common, widespread species, Rhopalosiphum rhois Monell, is also assigned to this genus. The latter species is placed in Sitomyzus largely on the basis of similarities between the alate viviparae of rhois and those of other representatives of this genus. The apterae of rhois are very distinct however, and a new subgenus is herein erected for this species.

The opisthosomal musculature of adult female Araneus diadematus Clerck was investigated by means of dissections. Forty-nine different muscles, each paired, were found in the opisthosoma proper. Of these muscles, 7 pairs move the opisthosoma about the pedicel, 13 pairs compress the opisthosoma, 19 pairs move the spinnerets and colulus with respect to the opisthosoma, 4 pairs dilate the anus, 3 pairs dilate the genital aperture, and 3 pairs open the book-lung spiracles.

Nine species of Ceromya Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Tachinidae: Siphonini) are recognized in the Nearctic region, including four new species, and one described species known previously only from the Palearctic region. The species are arranged into three species groups, with each group hypothesized to be monophyletic and each containing extralimital members. The three species groups and nine Nearctic species are as follows: the bicolor-group with C. bicolor (Meigen) (a Holarctic species newly recorded from the Nearctic region); the flaviseta-group with C. Ontario (Curran) and C. palloris (Coquillett); and the americana-group with C. americana (Townsend), C. balli sp.nov. (type-locality Masham Township, Quebec, Canada), C. elyii (Walton), C. flava sp.nov. (type-locality Masham Township, Quebec, Canada), C. oriens sp.nov. (type-locality Masham Township, Quebec, Canada), and C. occidentalis sp.nov. (type-locality Lakelse Lake, British Columbia, Canada). The bicolor-group has an Old World – Nearctic distribution, the flaviseta-group has an European–Nearctic distribution, and the americana-group has a Neotropical–Nearctic distribution. Adults of the nine Nearctic species of Ceromya are keyed and described, known hosts are listed (including corrections to published records), distributions are mapped, and taxonomically useful features are illustrated.

Biosynthesis by the larva of the dipeptide β-alanyl-L-tyrosine may be a useful taxonomic criterion for distinguishing members of the genus Sarcophaga. An application of this criterion to a sarcophagid parasite (currently known as Pseudosarcophaga affinis auct. nec Fallén) of controversial taxonomic and nomenclatural history is illustrated.

Myiocnema, new genus.

This new genus falls in a table of the genera of the Aphelininæ next to Encarsia, Forster, the antennæ being 8-jointed and the club in the female being 2-jointed.

The head is transverse thin antero-posteriorly, the occiput concave, the vertex impressed; the thorax has several long bristly hairs, and the parapsidal furrows are distinct but very delicate, almost invisible; the front wings have a large discoidal cloud beneath the marginal vein as in Coccophagus orientalis, Howard, the stigmal vein is distinct, not very short, but still shorter than the marginal vein and a tittle shorter than the post-marginal, the marginal vein being a little longer than half the length of the submarginal vein.

Timing traps are widely used to study the diurnal flight activity of insects, their response rhythms to physical and chemical (olfactory) stimuli, and the effect of weather factors on these behaviors. Goetz (1941) used an adhesive-coated horizontal metal disk driven by a mechanical clock to determine the periodicity of male-female attraction in two lepidopterous species on grapes. The area of the disk exposed at any time corresponded to a 1-h sector of the clock dial. The disk completed a full revolution every 12 h and therefore the trap had to be checked twice a day. Also, since the clock speed was not variable, the trapping interval could only be adjusted by decreasing or increasing the opening to the sticky disk.

The known species of the Indo-Australian genus Heortia are reviewed. The genus and its species are characterized; its distribution and relationships are discussed; the species are keyed and figured and their genitalia are described. H. iridia n. sp., from Celebes [Sulawesi], and H. dominalis restricta n. subsp., from New Britain and Rooke Island, are described.

A nesting aggregation of Lasioglossum (Evylaeus) cooleyi (Crawford) was studied on the campus of the University of British Columbia in July 1988. This species is primitively eusocial. There was a 7.3% size difference between queens and their workers; 40% of the latter had well-developed ovaries and 14% were mated. Thus, this species is one of the most primitively social members of its subgenus. The cells were not gathered together in a cluster or surrounded by a cavity. This species has a haploid chromosome number of 18, the largest number yet recorded for any Halictid bee.

Euxoa auxiliaris (Grote) females yielded the largest amount of extractable pheromone after they were stored at least 44 days at 10 °C and then 7 days at room temperature. The males would not respond to the pheromone until they were 28 to 37 days of age and their clearest responses were between 2 and 4 h of the dark cycle. Agrotis orthogonia Morrison females produced pheromone within 1 day after emergence and 2-day-old males responded to it between 5 and 7.5 h of the dark cycle when the olfactometer background light intensity was 0.35 lux. Female Euxoa tristicula Morrison produced pheromone 3 days after emergence and the males responded between 3 to 5 h of the dark cycle.

Differences were shown in the rate of larval development of the fly Agria housei Shewell reared axenically at 15° and 30°C on chemically defined (meridic) diets with varied proportions of glucose and an amino acid mixture. Although the rate of larval development differed with amino acid level and rearing temperature, the important finding was an interaction between glucose and suboptimal low levels of amino acids that occurred in suboptimal low (15°C) temperature. This shows that nutritional requirements can change with temperature and is noteworthy because any relationship between the nutrition of an organism and environmental temperature can have ecological significance.