In all the quantitative studies of the forest floor, sod, and soil faunas, the Acarina or mites have been grouped under one head as useful in reducing dead leaves and twigs to crude mineral matter, in spite of the fact that it is well known that some of the floor Acarina are eaters of mildews and moulds (minute fungi), some are predaceous, and some feed on living plant tissue.

Penultimate Instar. Head width 1.0 to 1.3 mm. Body length 7 to 10 mm. Otherwise similar to ultimate instar.

Ultimate Instar. Head width 1.3 to 1.5 mm. Body from 9 to 11 mm. long and from 1.5 to 1.7 mm. wide; shape subcylindrical, broadest at first abdominal segment, eighth abdominal segment with a dorsal swelling; skin densely covered with minute conical granules; ground colour pale yellow, cream-coloured, or greyish-white, heavily mottled with dark brown, dark grey, or ruddy-brown, often with a pink suffusion, venter lightly tinged with reddish-brown or even green.

In recent years, experimental research on feeding and nutrition of aphids has been closely associated with studies on host plant resistance or susceptibility to aphids. No satisfactory artificial feeding technique has yet been devised. Maltais (1952) and Day and Irzykiewicz (195 3) have described methods using membranes, and reviewed the literature on previous attempts to induce plant-sucking insects to feed through membranes. Recently, Maltais (1959) has offered a promising alternative method using plant cuttings in organic nutrient solutions. His new technique was developed to exploit the findings of Mittler (1957) that the natural turgor pressure of willow apparently forced phloem sieve-tube sap up the stylets of Tuberolachnus salignus (Gmelin) .

22. Melanoplus femur-rubrum, De Geer. The Red-legged Grasshopper.

Acrydium femur-rubrum, Harris Ins. Inj., 1862, 174, fig. 80.

Caloptenus femur-rubrum, Thos., Syn. Acrid. N. A., 1873, 163.

Id., Ninth Rep. St. Ent., Ill., 1880, 124, figs. 22, 23.

Riley, Rep. U.S Ent. Comm., I., 1877, 50, pl. II.

Melanoplus femur-rubrum, Scudd., Proceed. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hıst., XIX., 1878, 284.

It was necessary to know the specific gravity of the haemolymph, or blood, of grasshoppers for certain investigations on insect immunity, This information is not given in reviews on the physical properties of insect haemolymph (Rapp, 1947; Buck, 1953). Determinations of specific gravity were made by the technique developed by Lowry and Hunter (1945) and used on insects by Baldwin and House (1352). Nine males and 11 females of Melanoplus bivittatus (Say) and 11 males and nine females of Melanoplus mexicanus (Sauss.) were used after they had fed in the laboratory for three days on lettuce and dry dietary components. The mean specific gravity and the standard deviation for M. bivittatus was 1.0271 ± .0043, 1.0262 ± .0046, for the male and 1.0281 ± .0039 for the female; for M. mexicanus, 1.0261 ± .0023, 1.0257 ±.0021, and 1.0264 ± .0025, respectively.

Female. Length about 8 mm., anterior wing about 5.5 mm. The following parts are ferruginous: labrum, mandibles, lower margin of clypeus, scape, flagellum beneath (above it is dusky reddish), tubercles, scutellum, axillae, area of metathorax (except apical part), upper part of sides of metathorax, region below wings, a very broad band across pleura, legs, first two abdominal tergites and base of third, apex of abdomen and all of abdominal venter.

About ten years ago (see Can. Ent., Vol. XXXVII, Nos. 7 and 8) I published a list of beetles taken by me on the Queen Charlotte Islands. The beetles enumerated below were, except where otherwise designated, taken on the mainland of British Columbia, on the coast between the mouths of the Naas and Skeena Rivers. Some of them were determined for me through the kindness of Dr. James Fletcher, the Dominion Entomologist, whose valuable help and advice I have now for many years enjoyed; the remaider by Professor H.F. Wickham, of Iowa University, to whose skill and courtesy I am deeply indebted.

The seasonal history of an insect has an important relationship to the success or failure of any efforts to usr parasites in its control. In the work on parasites of thr European corn borer, Pyrausta nubilalis Hubn., over a period of years, the writer has had an opportunity to observe the changes which have taken place in the seasonal history of this insect in Western Ontario. It was shown by the writer (Wislwt, 1942, 1944) that there was a gradual and rather consistent increase in the proportion of the population which had two generations instead of one. The present paper presents further data pertinent to this subject.

Hebard (1915) and J. W. H. Rehn (1939 and 1939a) listed species of Orthoptera from Newfoundland but neither author reported any species of Gryllidae. Walker (1915) did not list any members of this family as inhabiting the Magdalen Islands.

The first record of a cricket from Newfoundland was by Ander (1960) who recorded two immature females from Shoal Harbour, July 27, 1951. He somewhat doubtfully assigned these specimens to Nemobius fasciatus (DeGeer), stating: “I suppose that the specimens belong to the species Nemobius fasciatus (Degeer), widely distributed in North America, which is common in Nova Scotia (Piers 1918). The specimens agree very well with the description of fasciatus in Morse (1920) and Blatchley (1920), and as it is the only Nemobius known from Nova Scotia I have good reasons to suppose that the larvae belong to the species mentioned.”

While looking over some insects in Hamilton a few days since collected by Miss Mills, daughter of Wm. H. Mills, EsQ., I was delighted at finding a specimen of Libythea bachmani, Kirtland, which is probably a variety of L. motya, Boisd. It was almost entire, though somewhat beaten. The young lady had taken it on the beach at Hamilton early in August. She found it settled on the sand, and it seemed at first partially torpid, but when captured used its wings freely in trying to escape. It is a very peculiar insect, with very long palpi. The following is a description of it.

Since writing the notes on Rhyncophora which appeared in the Feburary issue, I have had an opportunity of obtaining Dr. Sharp's determination of the two species mentioned on pages 22 and 23. He writes to me as follows:- “The two weevils from Cape Breton are: 1. Otiorhynchus rugifrons, Gyll., 2. Sciaphilus muricatus, both common N. European insects. The Otiorhynchus is a slight var.; the Sciaphilus not distinguishable from Scottish specimens.”

The species here described were collected by Walter R. Sweadner, Department of Zoology, University of Pittsburgh, during 1932. The writer is also indebted to Doctor E. H. Graham, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the identification of the host plant material.

Incubation.—Eggs laid in the laboratory January 25 required only 12 days to hatch. This is apparently the length of the normal incubation period. The embryo does not completely fill the egg until shortly before hatching, and its white color forms a contrast against the transparency of the egg shell.