Hille Ris Lambers (1939) erected the genus Masonaphis with Macrosiphum rhododendri Wilson, 1918, as typus generis. When I revised this genus (1958) there was no opportunity to examine authentic material of the genotype. Since then Dr. A. A. Granovsky, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota, has kindly supplied to me cotype slide 2 of the species and cotype slide 5 to Miss L. M. Russell, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. I have examined and remounted both slides which were labelled: Macrosiphum rhododendri n. sp.; Newport, Oregon; June 15, 1915; Rhododendron californicum leaves; H. F. Wilson; 509 cotype. Slide 2 contained sexuales and an alate viviparous female; slide 5 contained alate males and an apterous and an alate viviparous female. In addition Miss Russell provided me with material containing all morphs collected in Washington, Oregon, and California.

In rearings of lodgepole pine needle miners (mostly Recurvaria milleri Busck and R. starki Freeman) in California and Alberta an undescribed species of Ichneumonidae and two of Braconidae have commonly been recovered.

Aphids of the species described below were first seen by the author at Cowichan Lake, Vancouver Island, in 1956. Additional observations and collections were made in 1959 at several other locations in southern British Columbia.

The species is unique in that it is apparently the only one in the genus living on western hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.

All measurements of the body and appendages are in millimetres.

Larvae of the pale western cutworm, Agrotis orthogonia Morr., may be starved in the field by planned control (Seamans and Rock, 1945) or elimination of their food supply as a result of their own depredation. Starvation may occur at any time during the feeding period. Some effects of starvation on mortality, particularly in the early instars, have been reported (Jacobson, 1952). Larvae that were fed only two hours each day had an additional instar, developed more slowly, and were smaller (McGinnis and Kasting, 1959). Starvation during the fourth instar when the larvae were fed on various foods resulted in smaller pupae, and the size and fecundity of females were directly associated with pupal size (Jacobson and Blakeley, 1958).

Many insects which are photopositive at moderate temperatures begin to react photonegatively when they are heated sufficiently. If they are returned to lower temperatures, they become photopositive again. This reversible reaction sometimes prevents injury or death in any environment. In extreme environments, it permits some species to live where they could not survive without it. Consequently, a knowledge of the responses involved and the temperatures at which they occur may help investigators to understand otherwise inexplicable changes in the behaviour, numbers, or distribution of natural populations.

It is perhaps because of their unimportance as insect pests that larvae of the genus Syngrapha have been so little studied. Syngrapha epigaea is no exception to this; but since it is one of the most common species of larvae found in commercial blueberry fields of eastern Canada, the following notes on its life-history and parasitism are here recorded.

Richards (9) recognized five species of Lecanium for Canada – namely L. coryli L., L. cerasifex Fitch, L. tiliae L., L. nigrofasciatum Pergande and L. caryae Fitch. L. coryli L. and L. cerasifex Fitch were distributed from British Columbia to Nova Scotia; L. tiliae L. occurred only in British Columbia.

Further, Richards (9) drew the following conclusions:

1.) L. coryli is the L. corni Bouché of Marchal (1908) and of most European workers but is not the L. corni of North American workers.

2.) L. corni Bouché of Sanders (1909) and subsequent North American workers is a mixture of two species, L. corni Bouché of Marchal and L. cerasifex Fitch of Richards.

3.) L. tiliae is L. coryli of Marchal (1908) and subsequent workers.

Knowledge of the insects affecting livestock in Eastern Canada, except possibly cattle grubs, has been inadequate. The distribution and control of cattle grubs in Eastern Canada were studied by Cameron (1918), Stevenson (1934), and Gibson and Twinn (1936). Baker et al. (1950, 1955) reported the progress made in reducing cattle grub populations in the warbly fly control campaign begun in 1948 in Ontario. Occasional records of livestock pests have appeared in The Canadian Insect Pest Review and the annual reports of the Ontario Department of Agriculture. Hadwen (1923) and Hearle (1938) discussed the various pests injurious to livestock in Canada, but did not refer specifically to Ontario.

In a previous paper (Clark and Brown, 1959) a field cage was described for rearing syrphid larvae and other predators of the balsam woolly aphid. The cages proved satisfactory in the field but some method was necessary to supplement the results with data for individual predators reared in the laboratory under controlled conditions.

In the past, attempts to rear predator larvae in the laboratory on small pieces of infested bark proved unsatisfactory because of the difficulties of keeping the bark moist and suitable for prey development and preventing the growth of moulds on the prey, the bark, and the containers. In most cases when small petri dishes or other containers were used the prey or predators died before rearing was complete or the individuals which survived were unhealthy and not representative of normal prey or predator development.

The term “biological control” is sometimes used very broadly to cover all methods of encouraging the action of biotic factors. For the purposes of this discussion I will use it to refer solely to the introduction of parasites, predators, or microorganisms. I will also confine my remarks to the control of introduced pests. That is the purpose for which it has most promise and has been chiefly used. In my experience the most pressing forest insect problems of the Maritime Provinces–with the notable exception of the spruce budworm–have been with foreign species of European origin. It is logical to assess the value of biological control against exotic species before turning attention to its possibilities against indigenous pests (see Rawlings, 1958).

Infestations of Profenusa thomsoni (Konow) have occurred throughout most of northeastern, central, and southern Ontario since 1948 (Sippell, MacDonald, and Wallace, 1956), but before 1955 (Lindquist, 1955), its presence was not recognized because it was confused with the common birch leaf miner, Fenusa pusilla (Lep.).

The juniper berry mite, Trisetacus (Eriophyes) quadrisetus (Thomas), was unknown in Canada until 1956, when its occurrence was noted on Rocky Mountain juniper, Juniperus scopulorum Sarg., in the Tzouhalem Indian Reserve near Duncan on Vancouver Island, B.C.; it has not been found elsewhere in the Province (Fig. 1). Material was first submitted to the authors by Mr. W. G. Ziller, Forest Biology Laboratory, Victoria, B.C. Each year almost the entire crop of berries on the only two trees in the area is destroyed by the mite; these trees are 30 and 50 feet high. In 1956 and 1957, no normal berries were observed. In 1959, only four healthy berries were found amongst 715 examined from the two trees. Such a heavy infestation indicates that seed production by these trees was practically eliminated since feeding by the mite destroys the seed.

This is the second in a series of papers on the taxonomy of the cocoons and puparia, cast larval skins, and other remains of parasitic Hymenoptera and Diptera that are found in or near the remains of parasitized hosts after the parasites have emerged. The structures of taxonomic significance in the separation of the species were described and discussed in a previous paper (Finlayson, 1960). The present paper deals with the known Canadian parasites of the European spruce sawfly, Diprion hercyniae (Htg.). Parasites of D. hercyniae that were dealt with in the previous paper are not described or illustrated here.

Field studies on adelgids and other small non-motile insects living on the bark of trees are often hampered by insufficient magnification and poor light when a hand lens is used. We have tested various commercial illuminated magnifiers but have found that they are either of too low magnification or have too shallow a depth of field.

Although the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens), has received much attention as a result of its economic importance, little is known about its internal morphology and development. In this paper some features of the embryonic development will be described and compared with those of other Lepidoptera.

Frons somewhat flattened and oblique; labial palpus upturned, second joint with a deep, compressed carina of scales anteroventrally, third joint short and blunt, concealed in scaling of second; body moderately robust; praecinctorium prominently bilobed; anal tuft of male prominent. Forewing rather narrow, outer margin sinuate, apex acute; R1, from hefore apex of cell; R3, from apex, closely approximated to R3 + 4; R3 and R4, stalked for about three-fifths of their length; R5, straight and well-separated from R3 + 4; M1 from behind anterior angle of cell; discocellular weakly angulate; M2, M3 and Cu1, arising fairly close together around posterior angle of cell; M3 and Cu1, weakly approximated basally; Cu2 from cell rather close to angle; anal loop large and complete. Hind wing with outer margin weakly sinuated; Sc and Rs, strongly anastomosed; Rs, hardly stalked with M1; cell short, discocellular weakly angled in middle; M2, M3 and Cu1 from posterior angle of cell, approximated basally; Cu2 from very close to angle of cell; three anal veins present.

Three biotypes of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harr.), were reported from Southern Quebec by Cartier (1957, 1959). Of these, biotype R1 was adopted as the standard culture in studies of aphid resistance in peas. As the criterion of weight of individuals is frequently used in measuring resistance, the present study was undertaken to secure data on growth, reproduction and longevity of aphids of this biotype.

Since the last revision of the genus Pristiphora Latreille by Marlatt (1896), several new species of this genus have come to the attention of the authors. The following descriptions of these are essential to the development of other studies concerning the biology of individual species, and a study of the evolution of the genus by the senior author.

The occurrence of midges on jack pine, Pinus banksiana Lamb., in Manitoba has been reported by Lejeune (4), Barker and Wong (1), and Prentice and Hildahl (5, 6). The Forest Insect Survey also reported a species of Retinodiplosis on jack pine in Ontario, and Barnes (2) suggested that this may have been R. resinicola (Osten Sacken). This name was also provisionally assigned to a species found near Stead, Manitoba, in 1956 (7). Vockeroth (8) now shows that Retinodiplosis Kieffer is a synonym of Cecidomyia Meigen, which is represented by at least two species on jack pine in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. These are C. reeksi and C. banksianae. The former is the more common and undoubtedly was the species most frequently represented in the early reports of pine midges in Manitoba.

Although the European pine shoot moth is well known as a pest of pines where winters are moderate, particularly in southern Ontario (1, 2, 3, 6), its occurrence in the Province of Quebec has been sporadic and confined chiefly to the more southern regions. There have been occasional reports of this insect in Montreal since 1931 and in Grand' Mère since 1934, but it was not until 1954 that it was discovered in Quebec City. Since that time, however, it has been recorded from several other localities. In 1958, it was found in a nursery at Sayabec, in the Matapedia Valley.