The crucifer flea beetle, Phyllotreta cruciferae (Goeze) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is the most important pest of seedling canola, Brassica napus Linnaeus (Brassicaceae), in North America, yet effects of weather on its dispersal and flight activity are not completely understood. We investigated effects of ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, barometric flux, and precipitation on capture heights of P. cruciferae over four site-years in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. Capture heights increased with mean ambient temperatures for both generations of beetles, with 15°C determined as an estimated minimum temperature for flight. Although capture heights decreased with greater minimum relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure, and increased with greater mean wind speed, the contributions of these factors were determined to be minor relative to that of mean temperature. Results of the current study will contribute to more accurate predictions of the invasion of canola crops by P. cruciferae and contribute to improved integrated management of this important pest species.

The swede midge, Contarinia nasturtii (Kieffer) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), is invasive to North America, where it was first reported in Ontario, Canada. It is now established in eastern Canada and from eastern Minnesota in the Midwest to the northeastern seaboard of the United States of America. Swede midge is a serious pest of brassicaceous plants, including vegetable and oilseed crops. To ensure its early detection in the Northern Great Plains, a monitoring programme was established using pheromone traps located primarily along the edges of canola fields from North Dakota, United States of America, northwest to the Peace River region, in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. In North Dakota, 117 trap sites were monitored between 2015 and 2021. In western Canada, monitoring occurred on a small scale from 2006 to 2011, and 521 trap sites were monitored from 2013 to 2021. Swede midge was not detected in canola grown in the Northern Great Plains between 2006 and 2021. Partners in North Dakota and western Canada intend to maintain the monitoring programme to support early detection of swede midge if it does continue to disperse northwestwards. The monitoring programme contributes to outreach activities and fosters farmer and agronomist participation in pest management (i.e., community science) in the Northern Great Plains.

This paper records the Hemiptera of the superfamily Scutelleroidea (Burmeister) now in the collection of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. The writers wish to thank Dr. E. P. Van Duzee for his kindness in determining a series of specimens, by comparison with which the remainder of the collection was named. The purpose of this list is to give additional information as to the occurrence, distribution, abundance, and note damage by the forms of economic importance.

Predation on spruce-budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.), pupae on the forest floor was estimated at 72.5% per day. It is unlikely that many adults of the spruce budworm emerge from the forest floor and there would be little bias introduced in the estimation of apparent fecundity by disregarding pupae on the ground. There were large seasonal fluctuations in the rate of predation attributable to various predator groups; the overall rate ranged from 66 to 91% per day. Low temperatures had no detectable effect on vertebrate predation, but reduced invertebrate predation; however, this effect is unlikely to result in much variation in survival of pupae on the forest floor.

I review the history of forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae), occurrence from 1938 to 2001 throughout Canada, with emphasis on the insect’s impact on tree mortality. I show that forest tent caterpillar routinely kills a portion of its host tree population during outbreaks. Although the proportion killed is typically small, there are some unusual conditions during which the foliage grazer can precipitate large-scale host forest declines. These decline episodes are the result of a spatially complex pattern of outbreak spread whereby successive cycles occur asynchronously enough that there is a zone of overlap where the two cycles occur in rapid succession, leading to three to six years of defoliation, triggering a nonlinear mortality response that endures through time. One of these “cycles” is typically amplified locally to an intensity that is anomalously high and nonrecurring. Defoliation events that are periodic in aggregate may thus give rise to patterns of insect-caused forest decline that are episodic. These decline events have been shifting northwards over time and have been growing in extent. The dynamics of outbreak occurrence appears to be a complex result of interacting top–down and bottom–up forces, making it challenging to predict in advance whether or not any given outbreak will exceed the threshold required to precipitate large-scale mortality.

Because bark and ambrosia beetles fly during their dispersal and host location processes, their flight height is important for assessing their host selection strategy. There is no consensus regarding the height of their dispersal flight in forests, and their method of approaching trees is unclear. This is also the case for Platypus quercivorus (Murayama) (Coleoptera: Platypodinae), which causes Japanese oak wilt by transporting a pathogenic fungus. To clarify the vertical distribution of the flying population of P. quercivorus inside the host tree canopy, interception traps were set up at heights of 1–9 m from the ground near the main trunk of eight host trees, Quercus serrata Thunberg (Fagaceae). Captured beetles were collected between July and October 2022. Hole-boring activities were observed on all trees during the season, and beetles were captured at all heights from 1 to 9 m. Beetle capture probability increased with a decrease in height, and the number of captured beetles increased with a decrease in distance from the main trunk. However, the trap design in this study could not capture individuals coming directly above and must be addressed to elucidate their method of approaching their host plant.

The description of this species was founded on two specimens, one captured, the other said to be reared from the Liparid Byrdia rossi Curtis. As the types are lost, we depend for re-identification of the species on the description, the coloured picture and the host record.

The Canadian National Collection contains 2 specimens of an Ichneumon species reared from Byrdia rossi Curtis (♀ from Spence Bay, N.W.T., ♂ from Repulse Bay, N.W.T.) and 2 captured specimens evidently belonging to the same species (♀ from Yukon Territory, ♂ from Frobisher Bay, Baffin Isl.). Unfortunately none of the mentioned specimens matches the picture of I. lariae Curt., either in colour pattern or in size.

I may give an addition to my note (June, No. 6, p. 120, 1884). During the last seventeen years this beetle has never been rare in Cambridge, Mass., but never so overwhelmingly common as this year. As this elegant beetle was the first I had collected here in October, 1867, it had become my pet, and I paid some attention to it every year. This year it was very common on a long board fence in Ware St., which I have to pass four times every day. The fence surrounds a large garden with many elm trees near. when I heard that the beetle had been very destructive to elm trees in some places on the north side of the College grounds, and that it had nearly denuded some trees in Sommerville, I gave closer attention to it. Till June the leaves of the elms in Ware St. were comparatively uninjured. Then appeared the second brood of larvæ, and very soon the leaves were honeycombed with more or less round holes, and turned yellow prematurely. The larvæ were first described by Harris, Injur. Ins., 1841, and the same repeated in all following editions; the edition of 1862 gives a figure of the larva and beetles.

Epinotia nanana (Tr.) has become increasingly important in recent years in Quebec as it has caused severe defoliation of ornamental spruce trees in the Berthierville area, Quebec. The insect has a one-year life cycle and overwinters in the larval stage, mainly in the fifth instar, in a mined needle. Damage is most noticeable in the spring. Fairly heavy mortality, probably due to unfavourable climatic conditions, occurs among overwintering larvae. The amount of control exerted by parasites is always low.

This is the first of a series of papers dealing with the Menoponidae of North America, in which it is hoped that each genus can be discussed and illustrated. The author wishes to acknowedge the kindness of Dr. G. F. Ferris in lending the Stanford Collection, containing V. L. Kellogg's type material, which is being used in these studies; and of Dr. C. F. Mr. Musebeck, for the loan of material from the United States National Museum.

I am now able to give the results of my attempts at raising the caterpillars of the three Argynnides, Cybele, Aphrodite and Diana, from the egg, this past season. In August and. early in September, 1873, females of cybele were easily obtained, and a few of aphrodite, which is a rare species here, and these were shut up in kegs, within which were placed pots of growing violets. The eggs rvere laid abundantly on the leaves and stems, and on the cloths which covered the kegs.

The phenological behaviours of temperate insects can be highly controlled by photoperiod. Some foundational studies of the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae (Hopkins) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), documented a diurnal emergence rhythm that was asynchronous with maximum daily temperatures in the field and persisted under constant temperature and light conditions. In the 1970s, researchers hypothesised that this emergence rhythm was regulated by an endogenous circadian mechanism. Reflecting upon these historical data, we consider that a diurnal pattern of D. ponderosae emergence may result from photoperiodic entrainment of the circadian clock during the immature stages. Mechanistically, we suggest that the long-wavelength-sensitive opsin that we previously found to be expressed across D. ponderosae life stages could mediate, from beneath the bark, the input of light–dark cycle cues that are usually required for entrainment of the insect circadian clock.

Wheat, Triticum aestivum Linnaeus (Poaceae), and canola, Brassica napus Linnaeus (Brassicaceae), yield is at risk from insects, weeds, and pathogens. Insects must adapt to both seasonal and annual weather patterns and are known to respond to climate with changes in their distribution and relative abundance. Subsequently, risk to crop production also changes. Models that account for multiple species can serve to assess risk and address those risks proactively by monitoring, detecting, and managing insect pests. Bioclimatic models, developed individually for nine insect pests, were used to create a model to estimate risk to canola and wheat crops associated with the activity of multiple pest species. Once developed, the multiple-species model was used to analyse how crop risk responds to variation in temperature and precipitation across the prairies. For this analysis, we compared insect response and subsequent risk (a measure of the number of co-occurring pest species) to canola and wheat in current climate conditions and six incremental scenarios (warmer, cooler, drier, wetter, cooler and wetter, and warmer and drier). Results of the multiple-species model predict how pest complexes respond to climate conditions. The model will help increase risk awareness associated with insect pests.

Five species of Berytidae are reported to occur in Canada, Acanthophysa echinata Uhler being recorded for the first time. A key for identification, descriptions, a summary of the distribution, and notes on the biology are given.

Pseudopterocomma canadensis, Chaitophorus nudus and Chaitophorus nodulosus are described as new. All three infest species of poplar in North America. The affinities of each are discussed.

Pathogenicity of the microsporidium Nosema fumiferanae (Thomson) in the obliquebanded leafroller, Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris), was evaluated in laboratory bio-assays. When consumed by first-, fourth-, or fifth-instar obliquebanded leafroller larvae, Nosema spores primarily infected the gut and Malpighian tubules. When 2000 spores per square millimetre diet surface were consumed by neonate, fourth-, or fifth-instar larvae, the N. fumiferanae caused 91, 24, and 5% mortality, respectively. Infection by N. fumiferanae had a delayed impact on the older larvae. Large numbers of spores were retained to the adult stage by obliquebanded leafrollers treated as fourth- or fifth-instar larvae.

Diptychophora huixtla from Chiapas, Mexico, and Diptychophora powelli from Guerrero, Nayarit, and Oaxaca, Mexico, are described as new species. The two species can readily be distinguished from each other and from other Diptychophorini by their wing patterns and features of the genitalia.

Adult males were reared from larvae of the type previously associated with Anepeorus. These adult males key to and fit the description of Heptagenia cruentata Walsh. Because the larvae are very different from those of other Heptagenia species, a new genus, Raptoheptagenia, is proposed for cruentata. Adult males of Raptoheptagenia differ from those of Heptagenia in the anastomosis of two or more crossveins in the stigmatic area of the forewing, and in the subequal lengths of the foretarsus and tibia.