Sometime during the latter part of July last, while wandering about the outskirts of a large potato patch, and examining the damage caused by the Coloroado beetle. I found on the vines the larva of a beetle belonging tothe family of Coccinellidæ or Lady Birds. The insect was new to me and although there were no larvaæ of the Colorado beetle in the immediate vicinity, yet I was in hope that I had discovered a new enemy of our abominable pest. To test the question more at leisure, I took my newly-found treasure home, and placed it in a box, wherein were numerous specimens of Colorado larvæ in all stages, from the diabolical looking little monster just hatched from the egg, to the full-grown, fat, and repulsive larva dragging its bloated body slowly about in search of some convenient place to undergo the transformation into the pupal state.

Until recently only one species of this genus was recognized in North America–Menopsimus caducus Dyar. In a paper of 1919, Synonymical Notes Relating to Menopsimus caducus Dyar (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Vol. 51, No. 2, p. 74), Mr. J. G. Franclemont estabiished that caducus and fractilinea Sm. represent two distinct species, congeneric with the European one known as Tholomyges turfosalis Wocke, and showed that both Tholomyges Lederer and Menopsimus Dyar fall to Hypenodes Doubleday. Since that time, three more unnamed species have been found, bringing the total for North America to five. All of these, as far as is known, are restricted to the north-eastern region.

In working up considerable material which the writer collected in the western United States certain new species of Hadronema have been recognized, with the result that a key is provided for the thirteen known species of which five are described as new. In 1918, Mr. E. H. Gibson published a key (Can. Ent., xl, pp. 81-84) to the species known to him, describing two new species. The writer examined these types in the U. S. National Museum during 1926 and found that Hadronema confraterna Gib. is in fact a good species of Lopidea, allied to Lopidea lepidii Kngt., but smaller and the left clasper somewhat differently shaped.

This is the first of a series of papers on North American Mordeliidae. It is intendled that the entire family will, in time, be taxononically covered and that keys to the members of various genera will be included.

Unless otherwise noted types of species hereafter described are to be found in the collection of the writer.

The spatio-temporal distribution of cotton plants, Gossypium hirsutum L., infested with Aphis gossypii (Glover) winged adults, is described in a plot located in Bangui, Central African Republic. Each cotton plant growing in the plot was examined visually for a short period of time to ascertain the presence or absence of A. gossypii and to construct weekly infestation maps. Tests of autocorrelation and dispersion were carried out at different spatial scales by means of Monte Carlo procedures on embedded counting grids. Edge effect tests were also carried out. The statistical analyses show significant overdispersion of the infested plants and positive spatial autocorrelation. Positive temporal autocorrelation and significant edge effect are detected intermittently throughout the season.

The depressed flour beetle, Palorus subdepressus (Wollaston), was found in southern Manitoba during a survey of the insect fauna of hog barns in April 1974. This is the first record for this species in Canada. Adults and larvae were obtained from residues of coarsely ground feed on the floor of the hog pens. Dr. E. C. Becker of the Biosystematics Research Institute, Ottawa, kindly confirmed the identification of the adults and two specimens were retained for the Canadian National Collection. A culture has been established at the Research Station, Winnipeg.

The Pediculoididae are so strongly sexually dimorphic that there is little resemblance between the sexes, necessitating two sets of keys. As I am particularly interested in the females, they only are here discussed.

In Pediculoides the abdomen tapers posteriad to a blunt point, in all the other genotypes the abdomen is more or less truncate and angular behind. Pygmephorus (often misspelled) has tarsi I swollen and much longer than tibiae I. In Pediculopsis they are subequal. Resinacarus also has large tarsi I. In figure 12 the line around the middle of tarsi I is to be taken as a constriction rather than a segmental boundary. The bristles of legs I are not identical in figures 9 and 12, nor are the bristles of dorsal plates I and III. Resinacarus has three pairs of prothoracic bristles while the type of Pygmephorus has two pairs.

The paper describes and maps stripe pattern variability in the damselfly Argia apicalis (Say) along the periphery of its southeastern distribution. Two major variations exist. One, the broad-striped form, has a wide, full-length humeral stripe and, in females, a well-developed middorsal thoracic stripe. Broad-striped specimens also possess larger areas of black pattern on the dorsum of the head and, in males, on the eighth and ninth abdominal segments. The second, typical form, has a reduced pattern characterizing populations west and north of southeast Georgia and northern Florida. The southeastern margin of distribution consists of broad-striped populations representing four groups of isolated populations. Isolation results from low interchange between colonies of different river systems and, within the southeast, lack of colonies on lakes, ponds, smaller streams, and river headwaters. One intergradation area between typical and broad-striped populations is known. A discussion follows relating origin of the variability to Pleistocene habitat changes.

The spread of Thymelicus lineola (Ochsenheimer) in North America has been extensively documented (Rawson 1931; Clench 1956; Pengelly 1961; Arthur 1966; Burns 1966; McNeil et al. 1975; McNeil and Duchesne 1977). In Canada, T. lineola has been recorded from British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and now Manitoba (Gregory 1975; Jackson 1978). In the north central United States T. lineola has been recorded from St. Louis Co. and International Falls, Minnesota (Brewer 1977; Lundeen 1980). Pengelly (pers. comm.) observed T. lineola at Dryden, Ontario in 1972. McCabe and Post (1977) did not include this species in their list for North Dakota. The purpose of the present note is to report on the presence and collections of T. lineola in Manitoba and in northwestern Ontario.