Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), also known as the brown marmorated stink bug, is an invasive agricultural and nuisance pest. Knowledge of the life history of insect pests is important for informing pest management activities. Some North American populations of H. halys have two generations per year, and it is suspected that H. halys may have a partial second generation in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. We determined the number of H. halys generations in Ontario by examining the reproductive development of field-caught adult females. The pattern of reproductive development we observed supports the conclusion that H. halys complete one generation per year in the Niagara Region of Ontario. Reproductively active H. halys were captured as early as May and continued until early September, and the peak of reproductively active individuals occurred between 250 and 550 degree days calculated with a sine-wave function and a lower threshold set to 14.17 °C.

Eurycaenis. Three male adults of this genus were taken swarming at the edge of a small lake at Daventry, Ont. early in the morning of September 5, 1929. These specimens have the characters set forth by Ulmer in his key to the genera of mayflies (Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung. 81. 1920). namely “Prosternum very broad, twice as broad as long, so that the coxae of the forelegs are widely separated: second antennal segment three times as long as the first segment.” In Caenis the second antennal segment is less than three times the length of the first segment and the prosternum is longer than wide.

Otto Schwarz described ten species of North American elaterids, two of which he placed in the new genus Euplastius (1903, 1903a and 1906). Several of these species are known only from the types, and none has been redescribed or studied adequately. Dr. J. W. Machatschke of the Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, Berlin, kindly loaned type material of seven of these. Conclusions based on a study of these are summarized as follows:

Chalcolepidius substriatus Schwarz – Synonym of C. webbii LeConte.

Cassida azurea Fab. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) was studied as an agent to control the weed bladder campion, Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke (Caryophyllaceae). To supplement previously published data on the beetle’s host range, additional no-choice experiments were conducted. First-stage larvae were offered seven plant species related to bladder campion. Only one adult male developed on Dianthus caryophyllus L. cv. China Doll and one female on Lychnis × haageana Lem. This female did not produce eggs when it continued to feed on L. × haageana. In tests with adults, oogenesis occurred only if fed with bladder campion, and one laid one egg while feeding on Gypsophila pacifica Kom. First-stage larvae did not develop to adults on three native North American Silene spp., but two adults developed on three other native species. Based on results from these experiments and reports in the literature, it was concluded that C. azurea has a very narrow host range and permission for field releases was granted in 1989. Releases were made in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta from 1989 to 1993. Cassida azurea survived from 3 to 6 years and was considered established at 8 of the 18 release sites in the three provinces but has not yet increased to densities sufficient to reduce bladder campion populations.

The addition of legumes in the small grain cropping system of the western prairie regions of North America has several advantages: an increased diversity in the landscape may reduce pest loads of insects, plant pathogens, and weeds; a decreased financial risk for producers by diversifying the types of crops produced; and increased soil nitrogen via fixation and mineralization. Several alternative legumes are being examined for potential production in this region, including lupins (Lupinus spp.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), and lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus).

There commonly occur in the bark of decadent elms certain species of coleopterous larvae which are often difficult to distinguish unless they can be positively associated with their maternal egg gallery. In handling large numbers of these larvae for precise experimental purposes and in field work, satisfactory criteria for exact identification consisting of definite external morphological characters, capable of rapid use, are necessary.

Length 4.5-7 mm.: width 28-4 mm. Broadly oval; moderately convex; feebly shining; blackish, the dorsum with a bluish or greenish tint; body with erect brownish hairs. Head about one-half as wide as prothorax; genae moderately arcuate.

In the spring of 1957, Mr. K. J. Crawford, Gananoque, Ontario, took some interesting photographs of some mosquitoes that were feeding on a frog. With Mr. Crawford's kind permission, we reproduce one of these photographs (Fig. 1). This photograph was taken among the reeds of a swampy depression a few miles north of Marnlora, Ontario. As it was taken early in the season, April 26 to be exact, the mosquitoes had probably overwintered as adults. They attacked the frog fiercely, but did not bother the photographer. The mosquitoes can not be identified with certainty from the photograph, but they probably belong either to the genus Culex or the genus Culiseta. The evidence suggests that they are Culex territans Walker. This species probably overwinters in the adult stage in Ontario, is a known amphibian feeder, and is not believed to attack man (Carpenter and LaCasse, 1955).

Pupae of the onion maggot, Hylemya antiqua (Meigen), did not complete their development when irradiated with 3.0 kiloroentgens within five days of pupal formation. Older pupae were not adversely affected. Females from treated pupae were sterile and laid no eggs when caged with normal males. The males from treated pupae were sterilized to a high degree, yet normal females mated with them and laid normal complements of eggs. Less than 0.2% of 10,616 eggs laid by normal females caged with sterile males hatched. A 6:1 ratio of sterile to normal flies reduced egg hatch to 1.7%.

Peltotrichius glaseri n. sp. is described from Baleu, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, and the generic limits of Peltotrichius are slightly altered.

A single collection from a beaver lodge near George Lake, Alberta (53°57′ N., 114°06′ W.), in mid-May 1976 yielded 1362 female Anopheles earlei Vargas, of which 39.2% were blood-fed and 3.1% gravid. The mosquitoes could have overwintered in the lodge and fed on the beavers, but they could also have flown in from other overwintering and feeding sites earlier in the spring.

In Vol. XXXII. and XXXIII. of the list of Lepidoptera Heterocera in the British Museum, Mr. Walker described some species from “West Canada, in the Rev. Mr. Bethune's collection.” No records of specimens in the Museum are given, and the descriptions are of specimens apparently returned to the collector. On the chance of these specimens being still in existence I wrote Dr. Bethune, begging him for such assistance and information as was in his power to afford. He very kindly responded, saying, “I shall send you by mail to-morrow a box containing the few specimens that I have left that were named for me by the late F. Walker.

Two new species of metallic-green Coleophora are described from the Nearctic region: C. alabama Landry from coastal Alabama, U.S.A.; and C. mexicana Landry from the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Modifications to the key to adults of the Nearctic species of metallic-green Coleophora from Landry and Wright (1993) are provided to account for these new species. Larval host plants and natural history are unknown. Both species are tentatively placed in the ramitella group. Coleophora mayrella (Hübner), originally from the Old World but long established in North America, is recorded for the first time from South America (Chile and Argentina).

Knight (1925) erected the genus Neoborella for his species tumida, collected in Arizona and Colorado. Later (1927) he indicated that the species was collected on mistletoe, Arceuthobium sp. growing on pines at Mt. Lemmon, Ariz., and on A. cryptopodium Engelm. growing on Pinus scopulorum Engelm. (= Pinus ponderosa Laws.) at Estes Park, Colo. The genus remained monobasic until Herring (1972) described Neoborella xanthenes collected on A. americanum Nuttall. The specimens were collected by R. E. Stevens, U.S.D.A., Forestry Service, Fort Collins, Colo. He (in litt.) confirmed that the host pine was Pinus contorta Dougl. Carvalho and Schaffner (1974) described a third species, brevirostris, from Brazil, but the host plant of this species is not known.

My friend, Prof. T.D.A. Cockerell, has indicated some omissions in the above Catalogue, which I have verified. Those marked * are not recorded in the “Zoological Record,” and I had not seen the works fill Prof. Cockerell called my attention to them.

In Osten Sacken's well-known catalogue of Diptera ten species of Phora are credited to our fauna. Of these I have been unable to find any Phorid described by Fabricins under the name of atra., The author who first used this name appears to have been Meigen; in his Klass. Besch. Eur. Zwei. Insect (1804), this author describes a Trineura atra, but in his later work (Syst. Besch. Eur. Zwei. Insect, 1830) this name is relegated as a synonym of Musca aterrima, Fabr. (Ent. Syst., 1798). In the recent revision of the Austrian Phoridæ, by Strobl (Wiener Ent.Zeitung, 1892, pp. 193–204), no mention is made of a Phora atra, Fabr. The reference in the catalogue should therefore be credited to Meigen, and transferred as a synonym of Trineura aterrina, Fabr.

Occasions frequently arise in entomological work when it is necessary to hold an insect absolutely still in order to operate upon it. A year ago an apparatus was devised for holding sawfly larvae for injection. It has now been improved and is being currently used to hold sawfly larvae quiet while substances are introduced into the midgut, The apparatus, shown in the accompanying figure, consists of a grooved plastic platform with small holes in the base. These holes are connected to a vacuum line. A water pump may be substituted very nicely. The larva can be placed in any position on the platform by lifting it on a stick and pressing it lightly over the holes on the platform. The larva can be freed immediately by releasing the vacuum. As long as the vacuum is regulated carefully, there are no harmful effects upon the larva.

Zodion palpalis, n. sp.

♀.—Black, gray pollinose; face yellow, cheeks yellow, one-half the eye height; front reddish yellow, a narrow black line on each side above; antennæ reddish, second joint shorter than third; palpi black, quite long, clavate; mesonotum without stripes; scutellum with about twelve slender bristles; legs black, knees testaceous; wings subhyaline; first four segments of abdomen with large, subtriangular opaque black spots, last segment black, shining. Length, 5 mm.

A species of Plagiognathus Fieber damaging alfalfa in Western Canada has been variously reported as Plagiognathus obscurus Uhler, Plagiognathus obscurus fraternus Uhler, or Plagiognathus sp., (Arnason et al., 1948, 1951; Handford and Neilson, 1950, 1951; McMahon et al., 1949, 1950; McMahon 1950 a and b; McDonald et al., 1952-1955).