In outdoor cage studies undertaken in the late summer of 1973, a method of estimating the absolute density of a stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans (L.)) population was developed by correlating the average number of insects feeding or resting on a calf to the total number in the cage. Under the same cage conditions, where emigration, immigration, and to some extent, predation have been excluded, the daily mortality rate of normal stable flies marked with a fluorescent dye ranged from 25.3% to 27.3% dependent upon the sampling technique. Marker dyes have a deleterious effect on survival but surprisingly gamma irradiated flies succumbed at a lower rate than normal individuals.

Delphastus catalinae (Horn) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) was mass reared to support field studies addressing augmentation and colonization for control of Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) in southern California. Beetles were reared on B. argentifolii infested poinsettia plants grown inside greenhouses located in northern California. Potted plants, reared from rooted cuttings, were cycled through the rearing system over ca. a 12-week period, then discarded. A total of 174 245 adult beetles were harvested over a 20-week period. Each plant averaged 46 adult beetles (range 21–89) over the same period of time. Harvesting strategies were investigated using a computer simulation model based upon published and hypothesized reproduction and survivorship parameters. Results suggest that removal of approximately 50% of adults per week produced a stable and maximum production of beetles. Actual harvest rates were between 40 and 60% of available beetles. The cost of producing each adult was estimated at US$0.22, with the major cost being labor at 86% of the total.

Variation in bark beetle attack following spacing of mature lodgepole pine stands in the East Kootenays of British Columbia was analyzed in relation to stand location (site), spacing treatment, and harvesting injury. Observations were made on three sites, each having three treatments: 4 × 4 m spacing, 5 × 5 m spacing, and untreated control. There was no statistically significant difference in the numbers of attacked trees among sites or treatments. However, in the spaced plots 94.3% of the attacked trees sustained harvesting injury or were located adjacent to skid trails. Dendroctonus valens LeConte was the dominant species attacking trees on the two drier sites, and Dendroctonus murrayanae Hopkins was the dominant species on the third site. There was no statistically significant variation in the percentage of attacked stumps among sites or spacing treatments. On average, 80.7% of the stumps were attacked; attacked stumps had larger diameters than unattacked stumps. Thirteen species of bark beetles were found attacking stumps. Hylurgops porosus LeConte was the most numerous species at all three sites. Based on the fit of the Michaelis–Menten equations to species accumulation curves, an estimated 76–90% of the number of species attacking stumps at the three sites were observed in bark samples. Margalef’s index of diversity for the two drier sites (Cranbrook = 1.15, Parson = 1.13) was nearly identical and higher than at the moist site (Elkford = 0.89). Pairs of sites had five to six species in common, and the Sorensen coefficient of similarity ranged from 0.52 to 0.71, indicating moderate similarity in species composition. The abundance versus species rank relationship was fitted by three models: the MacArthur broken stick model, the geometric series, and the Zeta distribution. The latter gave good fit to data from two sites, but none of the fitted models gave satisfactory fit to data from the third site, mainly because of the high abundance of the second ranked species (Orthotomicus caelatus Eichhoff). Our results indicated that stand characteristics affected species assemblages and abundances of bark beetle species that attacked stumps. Management practices that minimize injury to trees during the spacing operations are emphasized to reduce attack by bark beetles.

Two metal granaries each containing 27.3 tonnes of dry wheat (13–14% m.c.) were artificially infested with Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens) and sampled for up to 4 years to determine fluctuations in insect density as influenced by changes in grain temperature and moisture content during storage. Density remained low (fewer than 5 insects/kg) throughout the period of study. Most insects were found at the floor near the wall on the south side of the granary. The temperature in the centre of the grain mass ranged from −5° to 22 °C during the 4 years. During a single season, moisture content varied as much as 5% at the centre near the surface of each grain mass, but did not vary more than 1% at other locations. In the first year of storage, the viability of the wheat ranged from 80% to 96%, and after 3 years in storage, 68% to 100%. Since no significant change was recorded in the temperature, moisture content, or germination of the wheat in the granaries, it was concluded that the biological activity of a low density population of C. ferrugineus does not initiate heating that occasionally occurs in farm-stored grain in Canada.

Water added to stored wheat in the Prairie Provinces of western Canada promotes heating in the autumn and early winter. A rapid increase in a population of C. ferrugineus (Stephens) where the wheat was wet occurred after heating began and was, therefore, a consequence of the heating and not a cause.

The hide beetle, Dermestes maculatus Degeer, is a cosmopolitan insect which each year causes considerable losses to stored products throughout the world. The economic importance of this species is due especially to the habit which the mature larvae have of boring into many commodities in order to pupate. However, the larvae and adults also feed on and thus damage a wide variety of substances with a high protein content (4), e.g., bones, carcasses, skins and hides of all kinds, etc.

A fossil halictine bee from Early Eocene, Okanagan Highlands deposits of Quilchena, British Columbia, Canada, is described and figured. Halictus? savenyeisp.nov. is distinguished from other Tertiary halictines as well as modern bees. The specimen is the second oldest body fossil of a bee yet discovered and the first fossil bee from Canada. The antiquity of Halictidae and of bees in general is briefly commented upon.

The Swaine jack-pine sawfly, Neodiprion swainei Midd., is a serious defoliator of jack pine in Canada, and has been reported widely in the Lake States. The largest populations in Wisconsin were on plantations and windbreaks. It is host specific and feeds primarily on old foliage. Damage to new foliage is sporadic, usually being heaviest late in the season. When forced to feed on red, eastern white, or Scotch pines the sawfly develops abnormally. It is not a serious threat to these species. In southern Wisconsin, adults emerge during June; eggs are present from mid-June to mid- July; larvae feed during July and August; heaviest feeding damage occurs in late July and early August; late larval populations feed throughout September. Fecundity was 116 ± 17 eggs. Eggs are placed in new needles, and "paired eggs" are characteristic. The distribution pattern of eggs within a single cluster is characterized for long and for short shoots of new growth. Female larvae require five or six feeding instars, males five. Phenological observations are correlated with sawfly development.

A stridulatory apparatus consisting of the juga of the forewings and specialized areas of the metanotum of both sexes of Merope tuber Newman (Mecoptera: Meropeidae) is described and illustrated. The sounds produced are discussed in light of their possible role in defence and intraspecific communication. This is the first verified instance of stridulation in the Mecoptera.

The Fire Brat, Thermobia domestica Packard, seems to have been in Eastern Canada for some time. Since, as its nick-name indicates, it is a heat-loving species, favouring steam-heated buildings, it has probably been established in the country for a long time although the records of its distribution in Canada are few and are all fairly recent.

A method is proposed for rapidly estimating the population levels of European pine sawfly in young red and Scotch pine plantations. On the hypothesis that the numbers of larval colonies per tree are distributed within a stand according to a negative binomial series, it is shown that an estimate Y of the mean sawfly count per tree in any relevant pine stand may be predicted from knowledge of the proportion p of trees infested, by means of the equation

in which k is an estimate of a distribution parameter. The estimate k is derived beforehand, by Maximum Likelihood from a series of insect populations representative of those in which predictions are contemplated.Approximate 95% confidence limits for estimated densities are computed from a variance estimator reflecting two sources of error. The plotted confidence bands pertaining to samples of various size furnish a simple criterion for judging directly from the proportion of infested trees whether or not suppression measures are needed in a plantation.

The banded woollybear, Pyrrharctia (Isia) isabella (J. E. Smith,) was reared under laboratory conditions from egg to adult. Individually reared larvae were fed one of six artificial diets and fresh plantain at 26 °C, light/dark (h) 15/9. The times of moulting, larval and pupal weights, and adult characteristics (fertility, sex) were recorded.

Larvae were easily reared on bean, wheat germ, casein – wheat germ and fresh plantain, while casein, alfalfa, and plantain diets proved unsatisfactory. Rearing procedure and developmental characteristics are discussed.

Numbers of the elaterid beetle, Hemicrepidius morio (LeConte) were attracted to cages containing logs or bark. Males greatly predominated. Evidence is presented for assuming a sex attractant, from females in the cages or in the traps used, to be involved.

Tetrastichus julis (Walker), a European larval endoparasite of the cereal leaf beetle, Oulema melanopus (L), has become widely established in southern Ontario. In 1975, rates of parasitism in 14 counties varied from 15% in the east to 95% in the west Dispersal into Ontario was natural and is attributed to extensive colonization of the parasitoid in Michigan and other parts of the U.S. midwest. Reasons for its success in Ontario are suggested.

In Nova Scotia, the whitemarked tussock moth, Orgyia leucostigma Fitch, periodically erupts in outbreaks that typically last 3–5 years. Population changes during a recent outbreak were monitored by means of aerial defoliation surveys and fall egg-mass surveys that were conducted between 1997 and 2001. Severe defoliation was first recorded on approximately 250 ha in 1996. The defoliated area increased rapidly to hundreds of thousands hectares in 1998, after which it sharply declined to about 4700 ha in 2000 and 0 ha in 2001. The total infested area [>0.01 egg masses per three branches of Abies balsamea L. (Pinaceae)] decreased from about 1.4 million ha in 1997 to about 13 500 ha in 2001. Between 1996 and 2001, the infestation involved a cumulative total of 2.4 million ha, covering most of the province. The collapse of larval populations during 1998 was associated with widespread prevalence of a singly embedded nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) and Entomophaga aulicae (Reichardt in Bail) Humber (Zygomycetes: Entomophthorales). Sampling of larval populations in late July and August 1998 revealed a widespread and virtually sympatric occurrence of those pathogens in areas that were under defoliation pressure, with infection levels by each pathogen exceeding 75% in many sample sites. Pathogen impacts on larval survival were studied in 1999 in a persisting pocket of severe infestation in Hants County. Larvae were collected every 3 d from balsam fir branch samples between 17 June and 21 July and reared to determine cause of death. The two pathogens together accounted for at least 50% of cohort mortality, calculated as marginal mortality rates according to Royama (2001). Although cohort mortality due to disease on balsam fir was significantly correlated with between-generation reduction in mean egg-mass density, overall pathogen-induced mortality was not high enough to drive the populations into an endemic state, and a moderate infestation persisted into 2000.

The host specificity of Lema cyanella (L.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and its suitability as a biological control agent were investigated. The females lay an average of 1564 eggs and development from egg to adult takes 17.6 days at 25°C during the day and 20°C during the night (average about 23°C). Feeding of adults and larvae is confined to Cirsium, Carduus, and Silybum species, and according to literature records, Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. is the main host. No economic plants are attacked. A colony of field collected beetles imported from Germany was infected with a Nosema disease. It is recommended that disease free L. cyanella should be released against the weed C. arvense in North America.

We report for the first time the occurrence of the well-known Eurasian and north African parasitoid Cotesia vanessae (Reinhard) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) in North America. Specimens were reared from Chrysodeixis chalcites (Esper) and Trichoplusia ni (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) recovered from several locations in southwestern Ontario, Canada, and detected by DNA sequencing from one Autographa californica (Speyer) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in southern Alberta, Canada.

The southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), is among the most destructive bark beetle pests of pines (Pinaceae) of the southeast and mid-Atlantic United States of America, Mexico, and Central America. Numerous volatile compounds can stimulate or reduce attraction of the beetle, but efforts to incorporate these into effective, practical technologies for pest management have yielded mixed results. Attractants have been incorporated into lures used in monitoring traps that are employed operationally to forecast outbreaks and detect emerging populations. The attraction inhibitor, verbenone, shows efficacy for suppressing southern pine beetle infestations but has not yet been adopted operationally. No effective semiochemical tree protectant has been developed for the beetle. We discuss complexities in the chemical ecology of the beetle that likely have impeded research and development of semiochemical management tools, and we describe basic science gaps that may hinder further progress if not addressed. We also report some supporting, original experimental data indicating (1) that a verbenone device can inhibit the beetle’s response to sources of attractant in a radius of at least several metres, (2) similar olfactory responses by the beetle to both enantiomers of verbenone, and (3) that pheromone background can cause conflicting results in semiochemical field tests.

A new bioassay unit is described which provides simulated stream conditions for testing control agents against black fly larvae. Attributes include uniform flow, high control survival, and excellent visibility for observing larval behavior. It also possesses the unique advantage of using recycled water, continuously supplied fresh water, or both simultaneously. The unit has performed satisfactorily in assays against black flies using pathogens, parasites, and chemicals. In addition, stream invertebrates from four insect orders have been maintained in the unit.

A simple and inexpensive incubation unit is also described which possesses several of the advantages of the bioassay unit. It lacks the capability for recirculation and is generally less versatile than the bioassay unit; however, it is useful for the maintenance and observation of stream insects.

Pine leaf aphid infestation produces not only a general reduction in radial growth of white pine but also a modification of the normal pattern of annual radial increment along the length of the stem. The greatest growth reduction occurs in the lower stem with proportionately less in the midcrown area and least in the top. This appears to reflect the distribution of branch mortality which is greatest in the mid- and lower crown. Several defoliators studied by other workers produce the greatest effect on radial growth and on foliage survival in the tops of the tree.

Stem elongation reduction occurs only after crown damage and aphid infestation becomes extreme. Lighter infestations are reflected, however, in reduced needle length in the year of attack followed by reduced branch elongation in the year following attack. The combination of stunted and normal needles alternating with stunted and normal branch internodes is probably a unique characteristic of pine leaf aphid damage.