Bathyplectes anurus (Thoms.) has displaced B. curculionis (Thorns.) as the main larval parasitoid in populations of the alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica (Gyll.), in eastern Ontario. Following its belated spread to the Bay of Quinte dairy belt, it used a combination of r and K strategies to assert its superiority: a greater reproductive capacity, more rapid search and handling, and more aggressive behaviour. Also, it is not subject to encapsulation by the host and reduces direct competition with the entomopafhogenic fungus Zoophthora phytonomi (Arthur) by laying its eggs in older hosts that have a greater probability of escaping death from disease. Taken together, these factors have enabled it to perform better than B. curculionis and to displace it in the host–parasitoid community. Moreover, it may have the potential to stabilize weevil populations during years when the fungus is enzootic.

How often, in turning over the pages of his check-list, has the American collector of beetles allowed his eyes to rest a moment upon those lines of type which announce the existence in our fauna of the mysterious family Stylopidæ, with its two genera, Stylops and Xenos; each represented by a single species; but, recognizing in these names only the records of captures almost legendary in their antiquity, he has turned the page with a feeling that they represent to him unattainalble rarities.

An investigation was made of the influence of age of the host (Musca domestica Linn.) in the pupal stage on the oviposition behavior and development of the pteromalid parasite Nasonia vitripennis (Walk.). Five age groups of hosts were employed in 10 pair combinations with an excess of hosts available for selection. Except for the 1-day-old hosts, more of the younger hosts of the combinations produced parasite progeny while the older hosts had a high percentage yielding neither fly nor parasite. Parasite production per pupa was 6.25 on the youngest hosts, with the number decreasing to 4.85 per host at 5 days. Hosts 2, 3, and 4 days old combined with 1-day-old hosts had higher rates of parasitism than when combined with hosts of other ages. The ranking for successful parasitization of hosts, by age of pupae, was 2, 3, 1, 4, and 5 days old.

A sex pheromone, detected in female moths of the bertha armyworm, Mamestra configurata Wlk., was extracted from females that were more than 3 days old. Males responded to the pheromone from 2 days of age until they died; younger males were not tested. Chemical and bioassay analyses indicated that the pheromone was an acetate.

The stimulatory effect of several chemicals was determined with males in a laboratory bioassay. Sexual responses were induced by Z7-, Z9-, Z10-, Z11-, and Z13-hexadecen-1-ol acetates. The maximum response in the laboratory was from the Z10-isomer, but this compound was only weakly attractive to males in the field.

Cypermethrin was more toxic to adults of the braconid parasite Apanteles ornigis Weed than fenvalerate, permethrin, azinphosmethyl, or methomyl. Endosulfan was the least toxic insecticide. Permethrin, however, was 19 × more toxic to the leafminer host Phyllonorycter blancardella (Fabr.) than to A. ornigis and could be most useful in an integrated pest management program. Several chalcids, Sympiesis spp., showed less sensitivity to azinphosmethyl than did A. ornigis.

Seven species groups of Dioryctria are defined on a combination of external and genital characters. Three American species, Dioryctria rossi Munroe, D. auranticella (Grote) and D. disclusa Heinrich, are referred to the auranticella group. Four Asiatic species are also referred to this group. These are D. okui Mutuura, D. castanea Bradley, D. pryeri Ragonot (= Salebria laruata Heinrich), and D. yiai n. sp. All the species feed on conifers. All except D. okui feed on pine, either cones or shoots, or both; D. okui eats the foliage of spruce.

A 5 year study of the foliage inhabiting fauna of young apple trees which had never been treated with insecticides or miticides showed there were large numbers of species varying considerably in quantity. The study also showed that the manner in which the foliage is distributed by cluster type and the distribution of the many species on the clusters are important factors in the sampling of mixed populations of arthropods.The leaf clusters were classified into six types based on stem length and on the presence or absence of fruit. The mean number of leaves per cluster for all types combined increased until mid July but no further increase occurred after that. The variation in leaves per cluster on the longer clusters, however, continued throughout the summer even though the mean number of leaves per cluster did not.The relative abundance of each of the arthropod species, whether it was identifiable to name or not, was given a quantitative rating by using random clusters as a common sampling unit. Eleven orders, 38 families, and over 100 species were recorded. The species making up the fauna were nearly all at a low density and in general remained low during the study. All the common pests were found but only four were at a level where economic damage to the foliage resulted. Very few of the species were present in numbers sufficiently large for analysis of the factors influencing their population density or theirA list is given of those species which were sufficiently abundant to show that differences in preference for some cluster types over others is common.

The aquatic larvae of the firefly Luciola leii Fu and Ballantyne occur on the substrate of rice fields and ditches in Hubei Province of central China. The behaviour and ecology of L. leii are described. We recorded L. leii larvae attacking four species of aquatic snails: Lymnaea stagnalis (L.) (Basommatophora: Lymnaeidae), Gyraulus convexiusculus (Hutton) (Basommatophora: Planorbidae), Radix auricularia (L.) (Lymnaeidae), and Bellamya purificata Heude (Mesogastropoda: Viviparidae). At dusk, flying males produced two types of advertising flashes. One type consisted of a train of 8 rapid, green flashes followed by 2–3 slow, prolonged flashes produced by patrolling males as a long-distance signal. The duration of flashes in the patrolling pattern was 530 ms and the interflash interval was 80 ms. The other type was a short-range signal consisting of a green glow, which was emitted by flying males that had located a female. Once a female had been located, the male landed and switched to a courting pattern. The male courtship pattern consisted of single flashes of about 400 ms duration, delivered every 1.8 s. Females produced single answering flashes of 910 ms duration, with a latency of approximately 630 ms after the male flash. Luciola leii was univoltine. Females oviposited 1 to 7 times (mean = 4.78). Females laid, on average, 187.19 eggs. The eggs hatched at 21.52 days. Eggs became luminescent 4 or 5 days before hatching. The larval stage had six instars. Mature larvae climbed onto land to construct pupal cells at the end of April of the next year. The pupal stage lasted, on average, 4.88 days. The imago lasted 10.13 days. No predators of larvae were observed. The spider Tetragnatha praedonia Koch (Araneae: Tetragnathidae) was frequently observed to capture adult male fireflies in its web.

An isolated stand of western white pine, Pinus monticola Dougl. ex D. Don, on Texada Island (49°40′N, 124°10′W), British Columbia, is extremely valuable as a seed-production area for progeny resistant to white pine blister rust, Cronartium ribicola J.C. Fisch. (Cronartiaceae). During the past 5 years, cone beetles, Conophthorus ponderosae Hopkins (= C. monticolae), have severely limited crops of western white pine seed from the stand. Standard management options for cone beetles in seed orchards are not possible on Texada Island. A control program in wild stands such as the one on Texada Island requires alternate tactics such as a semiochemical-based trapping program. Females of the related species, Conophthorus coniperda (Schwarz) and Conophthorus resinosae Hopkins, produce (+)-pityol, (2R,5S)-2-(1-hydroxyl-l-methylethyl)-5-methyl-tetrahydrofurana, sex pheromone that attracts males of both species (Birgersson et al. 1995; Pierce et al. 1995). The host compound a-pinene significantly increases attraction of male C. coniperda to pityol-baited traps in stands of eastern white pine, Pinus strobus L. (de Groot et al. 1998).

The exotic birch-leafmining sawflies Fenusa pusilla (Lepeletier), Profenusa thomsoni (Konow), and Heterarthrus nemoratus (Fallen) occurred in Alberta during 1992–1995, but only the first two were abundant. Birch-leafmining sawflies occurred at all sites surveyed in central and southern Alberta, and appeared to be expanding their ranges northward. Adult F. pusilla began emerging in mid-May (approximately 220 DD05), and there were one to three generations per year, depending on location and year. Female F. pusilla were relatively less abundant on young than on mature trees. Profenusa thomsoni began attacking trees in June (between 400 and 550 DD05), and was invariably univoltine. Both species were more abundant and were active earlier on urban trees than at a nearby rural location. The highest catches and most complete representations of seasonal activity were obtained using yellow sticky traps. Larval F. pusilla and P. thomsoni are unlikely to compete directly for leaf resources because their leafmining activities are separated spatially and temporally, but they probably compete intraspecifically.

Attack and emergence of the engraver beetles Ips pini Say and I. latidens LeConte were measured in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm.) naturally attacked by the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopk., in 1991. Sample trees were baited with the Ips pheromones ipsdienol and lanierone 1 week and 3 weeks after attack by the mountain pine beetle and again the following spring to observe the effects of the timing of bait placement. The densities of attack, egg gallery length, emergence, and hibernation of Ips species were measured. Ips latidens did not attack either the baited or unbaked trees at breast height until the spring of 1992 and the relatively low emergence was not significantly different by treatments. Among the 1991 treatments, the densities at breast height (1.3 m) of I. pini attack, egg gallery length, adult emergence in the fall of 1991, and numbers of hibernating adults in the duff were all highest for the 3-week treatment and lowest for the unbaked treatment. Significantly higher densities of beetles emerged and hibernated in the duff on the north sides of trees. Ips pini emergence in late summer 1992 from trees additionally baited in spring 1992 was significantly higher than for trees baited only in fall 1991. The density and temporal distribution of the emergence of both Ips species is discussed in relation to that of the mountain pine beetle.

Populations of larvae of the bertha armyworm, Mamestra configurata Wlk., in four physiographic regions of Manitoba showed similar trends over time: a decline from the outbreak of 1971–1972 to very low densities in 1975–1977, an increase to a peak during the years 1979–1981, and a subsequent decline. During the period of peak larval populations, brief (1 or 2 years) outbreaks [at least some fields with > 20 larvae per square metre) occurred at five locations in two regions, the Swan River Plain and the Valley River Plain, but not in the Western Uplands or the Manitoba Lowlands. In the first two regions, larval densities rose rapidly (from < 1.6 to > 13.8/m2) in 1 year. Although the general trend of population density was similar, there were differences in density among and within regions, and in the timing, severity, and duration of peak populations. Two parasitoids (Banchus flavescens Cress., Athrycia cinerea (Coq.)) and two pathogens (a nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) and fungi of the Entomophthorales) occurred regularly in larval populations. Of these, B. flavescens had the highest constancy among collections and may help to keep bertha armyworm populations at low densities. NPV was rarely found among larvae from low-density populations but appeared in all populations that reached outbreak levels. No single biotic agent could be associated with the population declines because of multiple parasitism and the difficulty in partitioning mortality when only a single sample could be taken. The rapid increase of bertha armyworm larvae from very low to outbreak levels in 1 year will prevent predictions of outbreaks from being based on larval densities in the preceding year.

The bamboo mosquito, Tripteroides bambusa (Yamada) (Diptera: Culicidae), is a mosquito species ubiquitous across forested landscapes in Japan. During 2014 we sampled adult mosquitoes from May to November using a sweep net in Nagasaki, Japan. We recorded and managed our field data using Open Data Kit, which eased the overall process of data management before performing their statistical analysis. Here, we analyse the resulting biweekly time series of the bamboo mosquito abundance using time-series statistical techniques. Specifically, we test for density dependence in the population dynamics fitting the Ricker model. Parameter estimates for the Ricker model suggest that the bamboo mosquito is under density dependence regulation and that its population dynamics is stable. Our data also suggest the bamboo mosquito increased its abundance when temperature was more variable at our study site. Further work is warranted to better understand the linkage between the observed density dependence in the adults and the larvae of this mosquito species.

The fall webworm Hyphantria cunea Drury is a polyphagous lepidopteran which has been recorded on over 200 host species. In New England, although it occurs on a large number of species, the most frequently exploited host is black cherry, Prunus serotina Ehrh.

Apple orchard tests in 1974, 1975, and 1976 showed that applications of granulosis virus reduced deep-entry damage by larvae of the codling moth, Laspeyresia pomonella (L.), to apple fruit at harvest by 55 to 96% compared with damage to fruit on nontreated check trees. Sting or shallow-entry injury was usually higher on virus-sprayed trees than on check trees presumably because larvae were killed by the virus soon after entry into the apple.

The Annapolis Valley is about 100 miles long and is one of the largest and most important of the agricultural areas of the province. The general relief is undulating to gently rolling, with general slopes from the North and South Mountains to the Annapolis and Cornwallis Rivers. The soils of the Annapolis Valley and Hants County were described by Harlow and Whiteside (6) and Cann, Hilchey and Smith (1). A wireworm survey was conducted between 1951 and 1958 since it was suspected that economically important species of European wireworms, namely Agriotes sputator (L.), A. obscurus (L.), and A. lineatus (L.), which occur elsewhere in the province, might be invading the area. The results of this survey are reported here.

This report shows: (1) by starvation tests on representative economic plants that none of them is a suitable host for C. lunula, (2) by feeding tests on plants in the Scrophulariaceae that only plants in the tribe Antirrhineae are potential hosts of the larvae, (3) by feeding tests with plant extracts that plants in the tribe Antirrhineae contain an unidentified feeding stimulant, (4) by preference tests with adults and larvae that, although the moths can be raised with difficulty in the laboratory on snapdragon and other ornamentals in the susceptible tribe, they are unlikely to attack these plants in nature.

Pairs of adults of Trogoderma parabile Beal were held in glass vials and provided with one of seven types of oviposition sites. Among the types of oviposition sites tested, the highest mean egg production was recorded on cotton balls and the lowest in empty glass vials. Egg production was not increased by adding food to vials that contained cotton balls. A suitable oviposition site, which provided crevices for insertion of the ovipositor, was more important than food in stimulating egg production. Non-ovipositing females lived longer than productive females on the various oviposition media. Adults fed, but did not require food to lay eggs. Mated females laid practically the same number of eggs during the oviposition period whether or not males were present.

The grape beny moth, Endopiza viteana (Clemens), is the key pest of cultivated grapes in the eastern United States and Canada (Gleissner 1943; Ker 1990). Laboratory techniques have been developed for large-scale rearing of this tortricid (Taschenberg 1951, 1969) using grape berries of Vitis vinifera L. (Vitaceae) and locally grown varieties. The use of grape berries is unsatisfactory because berries attract fruit flies, develop mold, and rot rapidly at normal laboratory temperatures (Taschenberg 1969). In this paper, we describe a diet for rearing E. viteana and the process that was undertaken in its development.

The red clover thrips, Haplothrips niger (Osb.), was first recorded from the state of Iowa and described by Osborn in 1883 under the name Phloeothrips nigra. The species hns since been collected and observed in many parts of the United States, southern Canada, and Europe. It wils reported in New England and recognized as a potential pest of red clover by Muggeridge (1933). Minute and very active, the adult insect is glossy black in contrast to the nymphal stages, which are bright red. In Minnesota, common host plants are alsike clover, Trifolium hybridum L., and red clover, T. pratense L.