Tick paralysis continues to be one of the most baffling and fascinating tickborne diseases in Canada. It was first reported in this country by Todd in 1912. Since then about 250 human cases, including 28 deaths, have been recorded from British Columbia. Outbreaks in cattle have affected up to 400 animals at a time, with losses in a herd as high as 65 head. Although the disease is most common in the Pacific northwest, where it is caused by the Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni Stiles, it has lately been reported as far south as Florida and has been produced by Dermacentor variabilis Say, Amblyomma maculatum Koch, and A. americanum (L.) (Gregson, 1953). The symptoms include a gradual ascending symmetrical flaccid paralysis. Apparently only man, sheep, cattle, dogs, and buffalo (one known instance) are susceptible, but even these may not necessarily be paralysed.

Representatives of the families Braconidae and Pteromalidae were present in association with broods of Ips pini Say and Ips perroti Sw. The identifications and information on distribution and hosts were kindly supplied by O. Peck and W. R. M. Mason of the Systematic Entomology Unit in Ottawa. Additional information on hosts and distribution were obtained from Hymenoptera of America by Muesebeck, Krombein, Towns, et al. (1951).

On February 13, 1955, a collection of galls was taken from a row of willow shrubs, Salix sp., growing in a ditch on the west side of Adelaide Street between the sixth and seventh Concession lines of London Township, Middlesex County, Ontario. The galls ranged in size from about one inch to one and a half inches long and were fusiform in shape with a slightly curved beak at the tip (Fig. 1, 2, 3). They were identified, with keys and descriptions of galls of willow in Felt (1912, 1940), as beaked willow gills caused by the fly Phytophaga rigidae (O.S.). Several galls were split open, disclosing in each a narrow central chamher which was closed at its lower end and which opened at its upper end through the beak. In the chamber was an orange larvae, about 7 mm. long, with its anterior end toward the opening of the chamber. It was recognizable as an itonidid larva because of the presence on it of the “breast-plate” typical of larvae of the family Itonididae.

Agrilus anxius was described by Gory (1841), and later given the name “bronze birch borer” by Chittenden (1898). It was recently separated from a closely allied species attacking poplar, A. liragus (Barter and Brown, 1949; Smith, 1949). The borer is native to North America and occurs apparently throughout most of the range olf birch from Newfoundland to British Columbia, and south to New Jersey, Ohio, and Colorado (Barter and Brown, 1949; Fisher, 1928).

While investigating the biology of the North American species of Hypomolyx, field workers in Manitoba found a vestigial, or short-winged, and a long-winged form under apparently identical conditions in about equal numbers. Although biological differences were nor then apparent, there was doubt as to whether they were dealing with one dimorphic species or with two distinct species, A search for morphological characters brought to light numerous differences between the two forms, supporting the view that two species were present. These differences, a description the previously unrecognized species, and notes concerning the status of the genera Hylobius and Hypomolyx are reported below.

Three types of cages, suitable for rearing potato-infesting aphids on whole plants, parts of plants, and excised leaves, have been developed during aphid investigations at the Fredericton laboratory. These cages have been used in the greenhouse and insectary with the four potato-infesting aphids Myzus persicae (Sulz.), Macrosiphum solanifolii (Ashm.), Aphis abbreviata Patch, and Aulacorthum solani (Kltb.).

Adhesive or climbing organs in the form of empodia or pulvilli between the tarsal claws are common structures in Hymenoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and other orders (Weber 1933). A more unusual type consisting of a small oval sac on the distal end of the tibia of the prothoracic and metathoracic legs of the reduviid Rhodnius prolixus Stål. has been described by Gillett and Wigglesworth (1932).