Apollophanes O. Pickard-Cambridge 1898 (= Pelloctanes Schick 1965, syn. n.) includes 10 species, namely, A. punctipes (O. Pickard-Cambridge) 1891 [= A. distinctus (O. Pickard-Cambridge) 1899, syn. n. = A. maculatipes (O. Pickard-Cambridge) 1893, syn. n. = A. arizonensis Gertsch 1933, syn. n. = A. mexicanus Gertsch 1933, syn. n. = A. similalis Gertsch 1933, syn. n.], A. texanus Banks 1904 [= A. francesca Lowrie and Gertsch 1955, syn. n.], A. longipes (O. Pickard-Cambridge) 1896, comb, n., A. margareta Lowrie and Gertsch 1955, A. caribaeus sp. n., A. punctatus (Bryant) 1948, comb, n., A. indistinctus Gertsch 1933, A crispus sp. n., A. erectus sp. n., and A. aztecanus sp. n. A. bryanti Gertsch 1933 and A. paraguensis Gertsch 1933 from South America are placed in the genus Cleocnemis Simon. Definitions, diagnoses, illustrations, range maps, and a key to species are provided.

Four lepidopterous and sawfly species were collected from Lonicera (honeysuckle) in the Ottawa area and reared for hymenopterous parasites. The following new species are described here, with new host records: Triclistus xylostellae n. sp. (Ichneumonidae, Metopiinae) from Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera, Plutellidae), Copidosoma glandiferellae n. sp. (Chalcidoidea, Encyrtidae) from Deltophora glandiferella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae). The following are new host records: Mesochorus vittator (Zetterstedt) (Ichneumonidae, Mesochorinae) hyperparasitic in Olesicampe lophyri (Riley) (Ichneumonidae, Campopleginae) from Zaraea americana Cresson (Hymenoptera, Cimbicidae), Oncophanes americanus (Weed) (Braconidae) from D. glandiferella. The following are parasitic species with lepidopterous hosts already recorded: Apophua simplicipes (Cresson) (Ichneumonidae, Banchinae) and Macrocentrus iridescens French (Braconidae), both on Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris) (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae). The cephalic structures of the final-instar larvae of the following species are described: T. xylostellae n. sp., M. vittator, and A. simplicipes.

The following descriptions are based on material collected during a field trip to the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia in June 1955. Most of the streams concerned are in the vicinity of Qualicum Bay, a summer resort midway between the cities of Nanaimo and Courtenay. Lying in the lee of the mountainous interior of the island, this narrow strip of coastal forest has a climate somewhat drier than is normal for the region as a whole. The annual precipitation is less than 50 inches and there is a pronounced dry period in July and August. The short coastal rivers are in spate in the fall and winter months when the heaviest rainfall occurs. They are fast and shallow with clean beds of gravel or small boulders. Because of limited water storage in the hinterland,flash-flooding is frequent after rain storms. Vegetation of the forest floor is lush and the courses of the smaller streams are often concealed by dense thickets of salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis Pursh.), thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus Nutt.) and other shrubs that overhang the banks. During the spring and earlysummer, conditions appear to be very favourable for the propagation of black flies. In late May, one of the Prosimulium species described herein was already past its peak of emergence and the occurrence of even earlier species seems probable.

The clover, or brown, mite, Bryobia praetiosa Koch, was described in 1836 from specimens collected an shrubbery in Germany. The systematics of the species is complex and confusing. By 1838, Koch had described four species in the genus Bryobia but he preserved no type specimens and his descriptions do not agree with his illustrations (7, 12). Subsequent workers either placed Koch's species in synonomy nor described new species. Two species, speciosa Koch and ribis Thomas, have created the most controversv. B. speciosa was accepted as valid by Koch, Berlese, Canestrini and Fanzago, ind Oudemans, but rejected by von Hanstein and Trägårdh (2, 12). The gooseberry mite, B. ribis, was recognized as a valid species by Thomas and von Hanstein but Oudemans and Trägårdh placed it in synonomy with B. praetiosa (12). Further confusion was caused by the descriptions of additional new species of Bryobia and by descriptions of immature stages of B. praetiosa (8). The following taxonomic characters used by early acarologists in describing species of Bryobia have since been considered too variable for distinguishing species: number of femoral and tarsal hairs on the foreleg, body size, concavity of dorsum, and size and shape of cephalothoracic plate (7, 8, 12). Consequently, taxonomists have been at a loss to interpret Koch's original descriptions and subsequent redescriptions became inevitable. Because of the lack of morphological distinctions the modern trend has been to group all previously proposed species into one valid species (7, 8). As a result, 20 synonyms are now recognized for B. praetiosa (8).

Conventional and modified methods of obtaining supercooling points of immature stages of insects have been utilized in studies of the cold-hardiness of the European pine shoot moth and the European pinesawfly. A method has been developed to permit visual observation of the freezing process of more than one specimen at a time. A freezing chamber consisting of a hole one inch in depth and one-half inch in diameter is located in the upper end of an aluminum rod partially submerged in a dry ice-alcohol mixture. A small filter paper disc, used as the insect platform, rests upon a #40 copper-constantan thermocouple located near the base of the freezing chamber. The thermocouple enters the chamber through a hole in the wall after several circuits around the circumference of the rod to prevent temperature anomalies attributable to thermal conduction within the wire. The thermocouple is connected to a sensitive recording potentiometer. The wall of the freezing chamber is blackened to prevent reflection of light from obscuring the view of the freezing process, through a binocular microscope mounted above the freezing chamber. The moment of freezing is readily recorded on the temperature trace provided by the potentiometer. At a cooling rate of approximately 5°F. per minute, a correction factor of 2.5°F. must be added to the indicated freezing point to obtain the actual temperature at the surface of the platform. When this correction is applied, the results provide data applicable to statistical analysis of freezing point determinations.

A new genus, Archepiolus, and a new species, schmidi, belonging to the family Neopseustidae and suborder Dacnonypha are described in this paper. This genus and species occupy a very primitive position in the Neopseustidae. The venation shows the most primitive features in all the Dacnonypha; also the male genitalia show a more primitive condition than that of Neopseustis meyricki Hering. Some aspects of the male genitalia are close to Mnesarchaea paracorma Meyrick of the Mnesarchaeidae.The discovery of this moth provides new morphological evidence on the problem of the ancestors of the Dacnonypha and of all Lepidoptera.

Calling by female Lambdina fiscellaria lugubrosa (Hulst) occurred when terminal abdominal segments 8–10 were protracted, exposing an enlarged region in the intersegmental membrane between segments 8 and 9. Histological examination of this region disclosed paired glands situated ventrolaterally in the eighth segment. The glands were presumed to be pheromone glands, and differ from those described for other Lepidoptera, in their paired structure and ventrolateral position. More males were attracted to traps containing virgin females than to empty control traps, but only during the first half of the moth flight. Board and yellow carton sticky traps were superior to 3M and white carton traps. Behavioral observations suggested that the sex pheromone may serve as an excitant as well as, or instead of, an attractant, stimulating the male to searching activity.

The effects of photoperiod and temperature on the diapause of Aphelinus varipes (Focrster) from Kazakhstan and Apheiinus near varipes from Alberta, which both attack Russian wheat aphid, were studied in the laboratory. At 20 °C, 50% of A. varipes entered diapause when the photoperiod was between 12.5L:11.5D and 13L:11D whereas 50% of A. nr. varipes entered diapause when the photoperiod was around 14L:10D. Diapause induction was close to 100% at 11.5L:12.5D for both species. Maximum sensitivity to photoperiod occurred 2 days alter parasitization for A. varipes and 3 days after parasitization for A. nr. varipes. At 30 °C, the proportion of wasps entering diapause was reduced to 40 and 72% for A. varipes and A. nr. varipes, respectively. Exposing diapausing mummies to temperatures from 10 to −10 °C for 4–20 weeks shortened the postdiapause developmental time. Survival was lowered by exposing mummies to −10 °C for over 8 weeks. Postdiapause developmental rate was directly temperature dependent. The lower threshold and thermal constant for postdiapause development were estimated to be 10.3 °C and 189 degree-days (DD) for A. varipes and 7.41 °C and 204 DD for A. nr. varipes.

Little is known about the associations of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with subterranean aphids and mealybugs (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aphididae and Pseudococcidae), particularly in Canadian grasslands. Knowledge of host plants for these sternorrhynchans is equally rare. We carried out a plant-based survey of ants and belowground aphids and mealybugs in a native fescue grassland in east-central Alberta, Canada. We found 23 species of ants, 12 of which (species of Lasius F., Myrmica Latreille, Tapinoma Förster, and Temnothorax Mayr) were in association with subterranean sternorrhynchans. Twelve species of aphids and mealybugs were collected; 3 are new records for Canada and 2 are possibly undescribed. Most ant species associated with sternorrhynchans were found with more than one species of sternorrhynchan, sometimes in the same nest. Almost all sternorrhynchans were found on graminoid hosts (Poaceae and Cyperaceae); there was little observed plant-specificity beyond this. There were no significant correlations between presence of subterranean sternorrhynchans and percent cover of different plant types, soil moisture content, slope, aspect, or visible entrances to ant nests.

A unique problem involving borborid infestations in modern septic sewage-disposal tanks is described. Two species, Leptocera (Leptocera) caenosa (Rondani) and L. (Limosina) empirica (Hutton) are new to North America. A third, yet undetermined, is related to L. (Limosina) gracilipennis Spul.

Adults emerging from tanks in new schools sometimes blackened lavatory windows. Domestic septic tanks were seldom infested and chemical tanks never infested. Factors responsible, prevention and control are discussed. The main pest species, L. caenosa, was cultured. At about 72°F. the egg stage lasted about 48 hrs. and the larval and pupal stages 7 or more days each. In a humid atmosphere males survived up to 32 days and females 79 days. Fertile eggs were laid as late as 47 days after mating, with a maximum of more than 1300 eggs per female. Observations, including olfactometer tests, indicated that L. caenosa should not initiate a public health problem.

The European corn borer, Pyrausta nubilalis Hubn., has been remarkably free from attack by parasites native to North America. Only two, Labrorychus prismaticus Nort. and Aplomya caesar (Aldrich), have occurred regularly in Canada. Of these Aplomya caesar has been by far the more abundant on the borer. Its presence on corn borer was first noted by Vinal and Caffrey (12) in 1919, at which time it was identified as Exorista nigripalpis Townsend.

Under laboratory conditions adult feeding, ovipositional preference, daily fecundity and longevity, as well as larval and pupal development time and survival of the alfalfa blotch leafminer, were compared on Anchor, Vernal, Iroquois, and Saranac varieties of alfalfa. Although some significant differences were noted, no constant trends were evident when considering all parameters, and rmax values for A. frontella (Rondani) on the four varieties tested were very similar.

Data from field plots confirmed that intervarietal differences of the varieties tested were not of sufficient magnitude to markedly affect the population dynamics of this pest species.

In 1982 and 1983, silhouette traps, sticky traps, and suction traps with and without dry-ice bait were evaluated for sampling populations of black flies that are pests of cattle in central Alberta. The dry-ice-baited silhouette trap was the most effective. The black-fly species collected were Simulium arcticum, S. aureum, S. decorum, S. meridionale, S. tuberosum, S. venustum, S. verecundum, S. vernum, and S. vittatum. Approximately 80% of the black flies collected each year were S. arcticum, the primary pest species of cattle in Alberta.

For many years, the black fly Simulium venustum Say has been considered to be the chief vector of Leucocytozoon simondi M. & L. (=L. anatis Wick.), a protozoan parasite infesting the bloodstream of ducks and geese and causing a malarialike disease that is usually fatal to immature birds. The organism undergoes part of its life-cycle in the stomach of the fly, which transmits it, through its bite, to the primary host. Its development in the latter results in the rupture of blood cells, with extensive destruction of tissue of the spleen, liver, and other organs. Although, superficially, the case against S. venustum appears to be already proved, recent studies of this species in Eastern Canada have indicated that some aspects of its supposed relation to L. simondi cannot readily be explained on the basis of what is known of its life-history and habits. My attention was focussed on this problem when I discovered in 1953 that the Simulium species reported by Walker (1927) as causing wholesale deaths in a flock of goslings at Fredericton, N.B., was neither Simulium bracteatum Coq. (a synonym of S. (Eusimulium) aureum Fries), as reported by Walker, nor S. venustum Say, as suggested by Twinn (1933).

Copulations of Pseudoxychila tarsalis Bates and Pseudoxychila bipustulata Latreille consisted of 1–20 intromissions. The male performed four different genitalic movements: prying, thrusts, small thrusts, and pulls. The male also courted the female during copulation by rubbing her with his middle legs. The observed male behavior does not fit previous hypotheses concerning the phases of copulation in tiger beetles. The female sometimes ejected 1 or 2 spermatophores during or after copulation. There were geographic differences in quantitative aspects of P. tarsalis male copulatory behavior, and more pronounced differences between P. tarsalis and P. bipustulata. This variation could result from sexual selection by cryptic female choice on male copulatory behavior.

The larch bark-beetle, Dendroctonus simplex Lec., is a black beetle with reddish elytra, approximately 4.7 mm. in length, with the front convex, the pronotum constricted in front, elytra slightly wider than the pronotum, the striae moderately impressed, the strial punctures small and deep, the elytra sparsely covered with erect hairs, with the pubescence distinct. It is abundant in dying larch throughout the larch areas of Eastern Canada from the Atlantic westward across Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan and northern Alberta.

Archaeochrysa sanikwanew species (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae: Nothochrysinae) is described from early Eocene (Ypresian) Okanagan Highlands shale at Driftwood Canyon, British Columbia, Canada. The evolutionary trends of three chrysopid wing venation characters (the shape of the intramedian cell, the position of the crossvein 2m-cu, and the development of the pseudocubitus) are analysed. The forewing venation of this species is very plesiomorphic compared with the vast majority species of Nothochrysinae, both fossil and extant.

Aphis heraclella Davis is synonymized with A. helianthi Monell. This is concluded from the following evidence: (1) the apparent lack of any morphological distinction between these taxa, (2) the phenology of host plant occupation in the field, and (3) host transfer studies.

Single females of Spalangia drosophilae Ashmead searching for 80 puparia of Hippelates collusor (Townsend), arranged in clumped or linear distributions, oviposited randomly producing equal numbers of progeny from cither host arrangement. Mixed groups of linear and clumped puparia caused changes in behavioral patterns that resulted in reduced progeny production, thus showing parasitization to be nonrandom. Host destruction was, nevertheless, greater in an all-clumped distribution, tile greater acceptance of clumped groups resulting in a greater number of progeny. Mixed groups involving a choice between linear or clumped distributions demonstrated the greater acceptance of clumped groups. Direct observation showed that the all-dumped distribution elicited the greatest overall initial attraction for hosts and subsequent movement to other areas. It was concluded that maximum host destruction resulted when completely random behavior was involved. A recognition of this, however, required a knowledge of behavior, host condition, and progeny production. The question of evaluating an exotic parasite’s effectiveness before introduction is discussed.

Optimum storage conditions for eggs of Aedes vexans (Meigen) were found to be a temperature of 2 °C and a saturated atmosphere. These conditions are also suitable for storing eggs of Aedes abserratus (Felt and Young) but this species can be stored at lower temperatures. When eggs of both species are stored at 2 °C and placed in a hatching medium at 2 °C, hatching begins in A. abserratus but not in A. vexans. A comparable hatch in the latter occurs at 10°–15 °C. Desiccation and death of A. vexans embryos occur rapidly at a low relative humidity (20%) and a high temperature (21 °C) but slowly at low relative humidity and a low temperature (4 °C). Eggs that lose a substantial amount of water will still hatch and the larvae develop normally, but hatching time is delayed. The hatching time may be twice as long as in eggs kept in a saturated atmosphere at similar temperatures, indicating that embryos must regain some of the lost water before hatching can occur.