Read at the Annual Meeting of the Ent. Soc. Ont.

The earliest species which I noted during the past season, was the common and obnoxious currant saw-fly, Nematus ventricosus, which appeared on 15th May. Two days later I captured upon willow in bloom a specimen of Dolerus collaris, and on the 21st and 22nd found D. aprilis quite common on and about alders, with a few D. sericeus? and D. abdominalis. By the 24th May the strawberry saw-fly, Emphytus maculatus, and the raspberry saw-fly, Selandria rubi, were in considerable numbers, and at the same time appeared several less well known species in fields and woods, such as Hylotoma McCleayi. This species I found again on 2nd June and subsequent days, upon the flowers of choke-cherry. Later in the season specimens were found upon Spiræa. Selandria flavipes was captured on 10th June, and was abundant during the season. It could always be obtained by using a sweeping-net among the common fern. At the same time could be obtained in abundance upon the ferns greenish larvae which I have no doubt were those of that species.

Comparatively little is known of the insect fauna of the Bahama Islands, since most of the collectors who have gone to the West Indies have confined their attention chiefly to larger and better settled members of this great group, and as a consequence we have a tolerably fair knowledge of such of them as Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico, and Guadaloupe, with scarcely any records from the little rocky islets of which the Bahamas proper are composed. Late researches on the coast of Florida have shown a close affinity between the fauna of that region and of the Antilles, so that the study of the insects of the latter has now a direct bearing on that of those of our own domain. The short sketch which follows is intended merely as a preliminary account of a collecting trip to certain points in the British West Indies, and no more is hoped for than to give the reader a general idea of the coleopterous fauna of these at the time of year during which the collections were made. Only occasionally was it possible to land and work the country for insects, as the main object of the expedition, of which the writer was a member, was the study and collection of the marine invertebrata, and most of the time was necessarily devoted to them.

Regression equations of per cent defoliation of white birch stands, Betula papyrifera Marsh., to birch casebearer, Coleophora fuscedinella Zeller, eggs or larvae had precisions (standard error of the estimate, b) of about 20% of the estimate. Although log-transformation of counts stabilized the variance, it did not increase the precision of the equations. Precision of regression estimates based on data from whole-stratum sample units differed little from that from only four mid-crown branches. The latter sample universe is smaller and more rapidly examined.

Significant variation in the morphology of late-instar nymphs of Stenonema tripunctatum (Banks) in Lake Huron could not be ascribed to their proximity to warm-water plumes originating from the Bruce Nuclear Power Development, by either multivariate or univariate analyses of size and shape. Major sources of variation in S. tripunctatum were developmental state and sex. Nymphs collected just prior to emergence had low values of transverse measurements in anterior regions (inter-orbital width, prothoracic width), whereas males and females were separated by these measurements and other components of head geometry.

No significant effects of thermal exposure were found in the reproductive development of S. tripunctatum, but this species is most commonly found below depths at which thermal-plume effects are expected. Based on a small but representative sample, ultimate-instar nymphs of Stenonema vicarium (Walker) from a depth of 3 m contained significantly fewer eggs and allocated a significantly lower proportion of biomass (dry weight) to reproduction in locations with higher temperatures.