The feeding habits of certain leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) are of particular importance, not only because of the diverse nature of the injury produced by different species, but primarily because a number of species are vectors of some very destructive plant viruses. An investigation of the feeding habits of certain species was undertaken to learn the nature of the injury within the host plant, especially the particular tissues fed upon and their relation to the external symptoms, and to bring out any features of the methods of feeding which might bear some relation to the transmission of viruses.

As a result of further studies of Eupithecia species chiefly in connection with their genitalia, the following notes have accumulated. As they may be of some certain interest to other workers in the group, I am publishing them at the present time.

The Hippelates flies or eye gnats are dipterous insects of considerable interest to medical entomologists and public health workers because of their relation to the transmission of yaws and epidemic eye diseases, and because of their persistently annoying habits. The writer has been engaged in studies leading to the preparation of a comprehensive, illustrated monograph of the group in the western hemisphere, a work long needed because of the close similarity of the many species and the difficulty of proper determinations from the literature.

Two generic names are at present in use for those North American species of the Eupithecia group which show specialized frontal development. Nasusina Pears. (1908, Can. Ent., XL, 344) was proposed for the species originally included in the European genus Gymnocelis Mab. by Hulst, with inferior Hlst. designated as genotype. Seven species, all with supposedly “nose-like prominence of the front”, were originally listed in the genus; later the same author (1909, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., XI, 119; 1910, op. cit. XII, 138) added several species, including two new ones.

Two new species of Ixodes are described herewith. Both have been recognized for the past ten years as differing in certain respects from known species. Published descriptions of them, however, have been withheld pending a fuller knowledge of their distribution and further studies on the stability or certain differences between them and allied species. The acquisition of further study material having shown that differences are constant, the writer now feels justified in erecting two new species, thus differentiating these ticks from allied species with which they have been confused.

From our insect faunal surveys of the maritime provinces of Canada, we have accumulated a long series of a species of Eubaphe which inhabits the cold sphagnum bogs, and being quite unlike any so far described, I propose for it the name:

Eubaphe lamae n. sp.

Male. Antennae black, light above. Palpi, head, thorax and fore wings dark brown with a slight orange tinge more noticeable along the costa; usually a well defined subcircular white spot just below the origin of Cu2; an obscure black spot at the upper end of the cell, beyond which is a faintly orange area.

Most of the species described in this paper have been sent to me for identification by various students of limnology to whom I wish to express my appreciation for their cooperation. Types are in the collection of the Illinois State Natural History Survey, unless otherwise stated. I am indebted to Dr. C. O. Mohr of the Survey for considerable assistance with the drawings.

The drouth in the prairie states and Canadian provinces in the early years of the 1930's had a marked effect upon ants which seems not to have been noted. My notes on this are very brief but are perhaps worth putting on record because of the apparent passing of this phase of a meteorological cycle.

Female. Frontal profile slightly arcuate, gently sloped, less than equal in length to the facial profile. Clypeus slightly depressed. Vibrissae strong, cruciate, just above the oral margin. Facial ridges bristled on much less than one-half their length.

For many years the nymph of Somatochlora walshii Scudd. has eluded our pursuit, in spite of the fact that its geographical range, unlike that of most of our Somatochloras, includes practically all of the settled parts of the eastern provinces and it is by no means a rare species in its special habitat–boggy streams and ditches.

Smicronyx utilis is a small curculionid beetle which in Saskatchewan breeds in the seeds of Iva axillaris Pursh., or poverty weed. The weed is a native perennial found from the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border to British Columbia and south to Mexico. Although not as prevalent as some of the other bad weeds, it is one of the most persistent and one of the most difficult to eradicate. Owing to the fact that, in Saskatchewan, the percentage of infestation in well-developed seeds is very high, the plant appears to spread by rootstocks only. This facilitates eradication considerably.

In a recent paper (1940, Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. Sec. V, 53) I emphasized the importance of the genitalia in determining species in Group A of the genus Coleophora, i. e. (according to Barasch) those species in which the aedeagus is strengthened with lateral rods of chitin. In this large group it will frequently be found that several species possess an almost identical type of maculation and cannot satisfactorily be separated on this character alone with any degree of certainty; the genitalia in both sexes, however, provide excellent means of separation.

The preceding part under this general title was published in 1940 (Can. Ent., 72:151-155). The new species described at this time were collected by Messrs. A. E. Brower, R. E. Nye, G. F. Knowlton and H. D. Pratt, and by Dr. Marion E. Smith. I am very greatly indebted to all of the above for the privilege of retaining the type specimens in my extensive collection of these flies.

There are few North American insects so little known as the members of the family Japygidae. In the United States the entire family has heretofore been represented by hardly a dozen species and from Canada not a single species has yet been recorded. American entomologists have devoted scarcely any attention to the group, and as a consequence, few collections have been made.

Aeschna verticalis Hagen has been for some years the only species of the genus from eastern North America, whose nymph was unknown, except the rare A. mutata Hagen. At last, unexpectedly, the writer found A. verticalis in transformation at Clementsport, Annapolis Co., Nova Scotia.

It has been recognized for some time that certain stomach poisons act as contact poisons also. O'Kane and Glover (1935) were among the first to demonstrate that arsenic penetrates the integument of roaches. They give a brief historical account of work preceding 1935. Sodium fluoride has been recommended in this country as an insecticide for the control of roaches since 1915 (Marlatt).

The following paper deals with six apparently undescribed species of Hercostomus collected from localities in the western United States and Canada.

Hercostomus chaetilamellus n. sp.

Male. Length, 4 mm.; of wing, 3.8 mm. Face wide, silvery white. Front silvery white, concolorous with face. Antennae black, the third joint about as long as broad, evenly rounded below. Orbital cilia white, the uppermost bristle black. Palpi and proboscis yellow.