Euthera Loew is a small but cosmopolitan genus of Tachinidae with distinctive smoky black cross bands on the wings. There are three described species in North America, Euthera bicolor Coquillett, Euthera setifacies Brooks, and Euthera tentatrix Loew. A new species from California and New Mexico is described as Euthera woodisp. nov. in honour of dipterist D. Monty Wood. A key and digital images are provided for the identification of the four species, and the three previously described species are diagnosed. Oebalus mexicana (Sailer) and Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) are new host records for E. bicolor and E. tentatrix, respectively.

Known material of the subtribe Mekongianina is reviewed. The group comprises four little-known flightless, montane species from S.W. China and S.E. Tibet: Yunnanites coriacea and Mekongiana gregoryi, which are micropterous, and two apterous species, kingdoni and wardi, which are here transferred to a new genus, Mekongiella.

The attractiveness of the aggregation pheromones produced by males of four species of Ips pine bark beetles was assessed to determine whether competition for a private communication channel among sympatric species or phylogenetic divergence better explains the current pheromonal specificity among the species. In the southeastern United States, Ips calligraphus (Germar), I. grandicollis (Eichhoff), and I. avulsus (LeConte) are broadly sympatric and they represent three different species groups. A member of the I. grandicollis species group, I. confusus (LeConte), is allopatric to the other three and native to the southwestern United States. Only the pair of species from the same species group were pheromonally cross-attractive. Broadly allopatric species from dissimilar species groups were not cross-attractive. Thus, their pheromonal specificity paralleled their taxonomic relationship regardless of geographic overlap and competitive interaction.

As it may not have come to the notice of all American coleopterists, may I first point out that the correct spelling of the name for the Dytiscid genus long known as Graphoderes Thomson should be Graphoderus, and its authorship should be accredited to Aubé. The above changes should be credited to Dr. F. Guignot of Avignon, France, who in his magnificent work “Hydrocanthares de France”, (Ouvrage couronné par la Société Entomologique de France), 1931-33 points out:—I translate freely—

The number of instars of larvae of the alfalfa leafcutter bee, Megachile rotundata (F.), was determined by direct observation, frequency distribution plots, and linear regression of head-capsule measurements. For all three methods, developmental polymorphism was observed; larvae were grouped according to the number of instars. The majority of larvae (77%) had four larval instars and the remainder had five. Mortality of bee larvae, apparently a result of physical injury during measurement of head-capsule width, was high but results were based on data for 259 individuals that completed development to the prepupal (= pharate pupa) stage. Direct observation of larval moults was found to be the only accurate method for determining instar designation but analysis of head-capsule width did describe the number of instars present in a population and provided estimates of head-capsule width for each instar. A morphological key for separation among four instars is presented as a practical alternative for instar determination in field studies.

An additional record of the tunnelling habit of Ips plastographus (Leconte) is reported and illustrated and the function of the habit is discussed.

A generation of wingless females of Adelges cooleyi (Gill.) is widespread on the needles of planted spruce in the Prairie Provinces of Canada and occurs on native spruces in the boreal region and in the Rocky Mountains. In order to distinguish this generation from the polymorphic cycle, it is referred to here as a ‘monomorphic cycle’.

We determined the distribution of root weevil larvae feeding on the roots of young ornamental conifers in field studies using a new non-destructive sampling technique. Most root weevil larvae fed on the roots during summer, fall, and late spring with significantly more larvae found at 10 cm than at 20 and 30 cm and more at 20 cm than at 30 cm. Larvae moved down into the soil to overwinter and moved closer to the surface (<15 cm) in the spring. Soil samples predicted the population density of larvae under individual trees. Four samples (0.0076 m3), 9 cm in diameter by 30 cm long, taken equidistantly 20 cm from the tree stem provided the best estimate. The equation, T = 64.04 M, where T is the total number of larvae beneath a tree, and M is the mean number of root weevil larvae from four soil samples, described the linear relationship between the number of larvae in soil samples and the total population of larvae beneath a tree. Implications for the timing and location of sampling and control measures are discussed.

In the early 19th century, malaria was indigenous in Upper Canada (Ontario), but indigenous infection has not been seen in Canada since about 1909. For many years mosquitoes were regarded principally as harmless pests of man and domestic animals until the recognition of a number of mosquito-borne viruses. At present, mosquitoes in Canada are known to be involved in the maintenance or spread of at least seven arboviruses. One of these viruses, western equine encephalomyelitis, occurs in epidemics in man and horses at irregular intervals in the western provinces. The extent to which the other arboviruses might cause disease in man or domestic animals in Canada is unknown at present but California encephalitis virus infection rates can be high in human residents of central Saskatchewan, central Alberta, and southern British Columbia. On the basis of observations made in the United States, St. Louis encephalitis virus could pose a threat to public health in Canada whereas the Cache Valley virus might involve livestock. Even if man and livestock are not involved at present in epidemics of disease due to these viruses, the presence of the viruses and their vectors should be of concern. Epidemics could arise either from amplification of causal viruses already present in indigenous foci or by amplification of viruses from new enzootic foci recently established by extension of the geographic ranges of the viruses. Evidence indicating which category each of the known viruses in Saskatchewan belongs to is briefly reviewed. Japanese B encephalitis virus has not yet been seen in Canada but the environmental prerequisites for an epidemic or epizootic due to this virus appear to be present and awaiting the arrival of the virus.

At Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, the diving beetles Hydroporus morio Aubé and Hydroporus polaris Fall occur in a series of shallow ponds. Detailed habitat measurements of a temporary and a permanent pond revealed a more complex and extensive organic substrate and vegetation community, longer developmental time, and greater thermal budget in the permanent pond. Hydroporus polaris was most abundant in the temporary pond, but occurred in both; this species oviposited in the absence of macrophytic vegetation, completed larval development quickly, and pupated in the drying pond substrate, and adults dispersed in fall to moister overwintering sites. Hydroporus morio was restricted to the single permanent pond; this species took longer to complete larval development, pupated in wet moss, and overwintered as adults encased in ice on the vertical pond edge. We hypothesize that H. morio is excluded from temporary ponds in the arctic by its requirement for a relatively long development time. Alternatively, H. morio may require sheltered overwintering sites that temporary ponds do not offer.

Diagnostic characters of Euxoa mimallonis (Grt.) and E. biformata Sm. are discussed. Three species are described as new: condita from Forestville, Que., shasta from northern California, and intermontana from the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. Adults and genitalia of the species are illustrated and a key to species is included.

Lacconotus punctatus LeConte is reported for the first time from Atlantic Canada from a specimen collected in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. This is the first record of the family Mycteridae in the region. The bionomics and systematics of the species are briefly discussed. The report is also situated in the context of the developing knowledge of saproxylic beetles in the region.

Neilson (1955) listed 19 species of sawflies collected from low-bush blueberry fields in New Brunswick. However, most of the listed species are either scarce or transient. This paper embodies notes on the life-histories, seasonal development, and parasites of the common species, Neopareophora litura (Klug), Pristiphora bivittata (Nort.), P. idiota (Nort.), Pristiphora sp., and two species of Nematus. The data were obtained from field collections and insectary rearing. Keys are provided for identification of the immature stages.

Female holotype: Color: head and prothorax dark brown, pterothorax dark brown with some red hypodermal pigmentation, abdomen uniformly brolwn. Antennal segments uniformly dark brown with the exception of the third which is yellowish brown. Legs concolorous with body except the tarsi and distal ends of fore tibiae which are light yellowish brown. Fore wings brown, light in basal third. Ocelli with orange red crescents. Body spines dark brown.

There are but few of our readers who are not familiar with the caterpillar of the Isabella Tiger Moth, one of our commonest “woolly bears,” and found, we believe, in almost every part of canada and the Northern United States. This larva, in common with many other members of the family (arctidæ) to which it belongs, hybernates during the winter. It acquires nearly full growth in the autumn, and then, having selected a cosy sheltered spot under bark, 1og, rail, stone or board in which to hide, it coils itself up there into a sort of ball and sleeps through the long and dreary winter, and about the time when the birds come back and the warm days of spring begin, this bristly creature rouses itself to begin rife anew.

Polymerase chain reaction and subsequent restriction fragment profiling analysis were used to associate collected tabanid egg masses with their respective species of adult horse flies and deer flies (Diptera: Tabanidae) in Manitoba, Canada. The ribosomal DNA (rDNA) intergenic spacer between the 28S and 18S ribosomal RNA genes was used successfully to differentiate 34 species of adult tabanids representing five genera: Atylotus (1 sp.), Chrysops (10 spp.), Haematopota (1 sp.), Hybomitra (17 spp.), and Tabanus (5 spp.). rDNA was a suitable molecular target for identifying tabanid species because of the high level of interspecific variation when comparing fragment profiles among different species, and the corresponding minimal intraspecific variation among individuals of the same species. Restriction fragment profiles from 56 field-collected tabanid egg masses were compared with those previously obtained from adults of known species. Egg masses of five species were identified: Hybomitra lasiophthalma (Macquart), Hybomitra nitidifrons nuda (McDunnough), Chrysops aestuans van der Wulp, Chrysops excitans Walker, and Chrysops mitis Osten Sacken. We also provide physical descriptions of these tabanid egg masses along with pictures.

The discovery in southwestern British Columbia of widespread established populations of the Palaearctic leafminer Heterarthrus vagans (Fallén) feeding on native red alder, Alnus rubra Bong. (Betulaceae), is reported. A preliminary survey suggests that it is currently confined to the Fraser Valley west of Hope, its distribution extending north along Howe Sound almost to Squamish. It was not found in the greater Victoria area. No other regions of the province have been surveyed. This introduced sawfly completes at least two generations a year. Diagnostic characters to aid the recognition of adults and feeding larvae of H. vagans and a modified key to adult Heterarthrinae on Betulaceae are provided.

The efficacy of mixtures of permethrin and Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki Berliner (B.t.), Autographa californica (Speyer) nuclear polyhedrosis virus (ACNPV), or Pieris (= Artogeia) rapae (L.) granulosis virus (PRGV) against the cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni (Hübner), and the imported cabbageworm, P. rapae, was assessed by field plot tests. Protection of the crop and yield by plots treated with several of the reduced-dosage mixtures were similar to protection and yield by plots treated with permethrin at the full rate, demonstrating a feasible procedure for reducing the amount of chemical insecticide applied without sacrificing protection of the crop. Furthermore, efficacy of the biological component of the mixtures, B.t. or viruses, was frequently enhanced by low concentrations of the chemical component on the mixture.