During the summer and autumn of 1905 severall small collections of mosquitoes were sent to me by Major Hassard, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and Colonel Loscombe, from the Military Station at Newcastle, alt 4,000 feet, and more recently a number of living larvæ from the same locality, collected by Miss. Maclaverty.

Spray and feeding bioassays of acephate and carbaryl were conducted with each of the six instars of the western spruce budworm, Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman. Dose-mortality regressions were used to estimate overall relative susceptibility. Small differences in overall susceptibility of the six instars to acephate and large differences to carbaryl were observed. Application of carbaryl so that it would be present when second instars emerge from their hibernacula may maximize efficacy by minimizing the tolerance-instar effect. The efficacy of acephate may be relatively unaffected by instar-related changes in tolerance.

A key is given to species of Aphis L. on Umbelliferae in Manitoba: A. spiraecola Patch, A. heraclella Davis, A. decepta Hottes and Frison, A. thaspii Oestlund, and A. saniculae Williams. A. signatis Hottes and Frison is considered to be a synonym of A. thaspii, and A. luridis Hottes and Frison a synonym of A. saniculae.

The two-striped grasshopper, Melanoplus bivittatus (Say), generally confines its egg laying to ditches, drift soil and crop margins, but during the autumn grasshopper egg survey in southern Saskatchewan in 1942, this species was observed ovipositing in exposed piles of wheat left in the grain fields at harvest time.

The Arthrogastra of North America have scarcely been studied except in two or three families, the principal part of the American literature consisting of scattered notes and descriptions. Two or three more pretentious papers have been published by Wood, Putnam and Hagen. A broad field for study is open for future investigators. In order to call attention to the group and secure such co-operation of collectors as may be possible, the following preliminary list of twenty genera and fifty-nine species has been prepared. A few forms are added from Lower California and Cuba which will probably be found within the limits of the United States. Additions and corrections to the list are solicited, as well as specimens from all parts of the country, for which a suitable return will be made.

Recent developments in the insecticide field have made available to the economic entomologist a wide variety of chemical compounds which exhibit high toxicity to certain species or groups of insects. The pyrethrins rotenone and nicotine, reinforced by the dinitro compounds and thiocyanates of prewar times, have now been joined by the chlorinated aromatic hydro-carbons: DDT, gammexane, chlordane and toxapohene.

In Manitoba, Canada, commercial soybeans and two types of field beans, navy and pinto, were sampled for plant bugs. At the centre and margins of 36 fields, sweep net and tap tray samples were taken weekly. In all three crops, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) (Hemiptera: Miridae) comprised >78% and Adelphocoris lineolatus (Goeze) (Hemiptera: Miridae) <10% of adult mirids. Species composition varied among years but not among crops. For Lygus Hahn, nymphs were 46% of the catch in trays and 23% in sweeps, but total Lygus catch in trays was >2% of that in sweeps. Catch/sample effort was similar at field centres and margins for both Lygus adults and nymphs. Lygus lineolaris reproduced and developed in all three crops. In field beans, Lygus adults were first collected in late vegetative and early pod set stages and late instar nymphs and adults were present from pod elongation until maturity – results consistent with immigration of first summer generation reproductive adults and development of the second generation in the crops. There was evidence of late season immigration of Lygus into all crops. There was no loss of seed quantity attributable to mirids in any of the crops; in field beans there was no evidence that mirids reduced seed quality.

While making an “auto” trip around the Gaspé Peninsula (Province of Quebec) in the summer of 1928. I encountered a swarm of dark-winged insects which I at first took to be may flies “dancing” over a bridge across a river to the west of Chandler—a town on the south shore, well out toward the eastern end of the Gaspé Peninsula. Stopping the car, I descended to inalte a few “investigational” sweepings with my net, and to my utter amazement discovered that I had captured a net full of males of the rare and much-sought (because of its primitiveness) “cranefly” Pratoplasa fitchii, O.S., a member of the superfamily Psychodoidea.

Among some mosquitoes lately sent from Alaska is a species which, coming from the far north (65° N.), has the unique position of standing near three mosquitoes found in much warmer climates, i.e., Theobaldia annulata, Sharnk, found in Europe, Mexico and California, an Italian species of which Falbici says, “Fin ora fu trovata solamenta a Macareseed a Pato,” and penetrans, R. Desvoidy, found in France.

The larva of Vespa maculata spins for itself an entire cocoon, a cell lining, plus a lid to its cell. The number of these linings, placed one atop another, shows how often the cell has been occupied by these young wasps. The masses of hard, chalky, red material found in each cell also show by their number how many times the compartment has been used. Each silken lining can be peeled off ; each bag is complete, and at its bottom is this hardened mass of excrement. When one makes a cross-section of the nest, one finds mass upon mass at the bottom of the cells, but each mass is distinct, separated from the others by this tissue.

The account of this insect given by the early fathers of Œconomic Entomology is so charming that it seems almost profane to disturb a history accepted by most of their credulous offspring with unquestioning faith. Its wonderful habits and spura-rational instincts have been stock in trade ever since, and, like the fiction of the fly walking on glass by a sucker arrangement of its feet, is likely to hold its place in paste and scissor literature for all time to come.

Attraction of male Choristoneura spp. to various mixtures of the pheromone components of C. occidentalis Freeman and C. retiniana (Walsingham) released at various rates was evaluated at several sites in western North America. At all but 1 location, male trap capture increased with progressively greater release rates of a 92:8 mixture of (E)- and (Z)-11-tetradecenals (TDALs), previously identified as active components of the attractant pheromone of C. occidentalis. Similarly, trap catch was positively correlated with release rate of an 84:7:8:1 mixture of (E)- and (Z)-11-tetradecenyl acetates and (E)- and (Z)-11-tetradecenols (1:0.1 TDACs:TDOLs), previously identified as active components of the attractant pheromone of C. retiniana. All release rates of TDALs attracted only C. carnana (C. occidentalis and C. carnana probably are subspecies of the same species) in the central Sierra Nevada, but in the southern Cascades all but the lowest release rate of TDALs attracted significant numbers of males classified as C. retiniana in addition to those classified as C. occidentalis. At all locations, 1:0.1 TDACs: TDOLs exhibited complete species specificity, attracting only C. retiniana at all release rates tested. The 1:0.1 ratio of TDACs: TDOLs was the most attractive mixture of these components to C. retiniana. Addition of 1:0.1 TDACs: TDOLs did not significantly affect attraction of C. carnana to TDALs. However addition of TDALs significantly decreased attraction of C. retiniana to 1:0.1 TDACs:TDOLs.

Pseudoxenufens forsythi n. gen., n. sp. of trichogrammatid wasp from Ecuador is described and phoresy in the Trichogrammatidae is discussed.

Nine species of hymenopterous parasitoids were trapped on sticky traps as they were attracted to red cedar logs infested with the eastern jumper bark beetle, Phloeosinus dentatus (Say). All were successfully reared from infested logs. The parasitoids Cheiropachus arizoninsis (Ashmead), Eurytoma aequabilis Bugbee, Heydenia unica Cook & Davis, and Spathius impus Matthews were reared directly from P. dentatus larvae.

Five species of parasitoids reared from P. dentatus larvae or from infested logs commonly attack the southern pine beetle and Ips spp. beetles, indicating that P. dentatus may be an important alternate host when the other host populations are low.