In an attempt to discover the native hosts of the parasites of the oriental fruit moth (Grapholitha molesta Busck) the larvae of a considerable number of microlepidoptera were collected and reared. The economic results of the work have been1 presented by the writer in a previous paper; the present paper comprises a list of the lepidoptera which were reared, with their food plants and parasites. The lepidoptera were determined by Dr. J. McDunnough of the Entomological Branch, Ottawa, and the hymenoptera by Mr. G. S. Walley of Ottawa and the specialists of the United States Bureau of Entomologym, Washington.

In a recent number of the Canadian Entomologist I presented a generic key to the female Pediculoididae and described a new species of Pygmephorus. I now add three more species to this genus. Types are to be deposited at the United States National Museum.

Early this spring (1928) several complaints were received by the Department of Biology of the University of Toronto, of infestations of dwelling houses by Dermestids. The most pronounced case was in a new house in the newer section of North Toronto where beetles had been appearing in such numbers that their presence and continued reoccurrence was driving the tenants to hysterics and to the point of moving out of the house. Specimens brought in proved to be Anthrenus scrophulariae Linn. larvae and adults.

A frequently used method for determining the threshold temperature for insect development is based on the expression for the hyperbola and its reciprocal (Bean 1961). This method has certain disadvantages, the major one being that the developmental velocity curve is sigmoid and the selection of a linear portion of this curve has a subjective element (Morris and Fulton 1970).

Palpi dark brown, with a yellowish white annulus around the middle and tip of the second and third joints. Head yellowish white; antennae dark brown, with the extreme tip of the basal joint white. Thorax above and base of the forewings brown: dorsal margin of the forewings, from the base to the ciliae, pale orange yellow, with a broad fascia of the same hue at about the basal fourth, passing across the wing and gradually narrowing to the costa.

During studies of the parasite complex of the diamondback moth, Plutella maculipennis Curt., at Ottawa, Ontario, July to October, 1952, and April, 1953, 1,234 host cocoons were collected from a heavily infested field of Penn State Ballhead cabbage. On October 31, eight adults (2 ♂ and 6 ♀) of Tetrastichus sokolowskii Kurdj., emerged from a single cocoon collected 16 days previously and held under laboratory conditions in a gelatin capsule. On May 10, nine adults (1 ♂ and 8 ♀) and on May 15, eight adults (1 ♂ and 7 ♀) of the same species emerged from two overwintered cocoons collected 14 and 16 days previously. In each case, the lack of parasitic remnants indicated that they were primary parasites.

Among the fossil insects collected at Florissant, Colo, by Judge J. Henderson and Dr.F. Ramaley, of the University of Colorado, is a species of Corixidæ, represented by numerous individuals. It occurred, as Judge Henderson informs me, in the first railroad cutting east of Florissant, a little above the middle of the seciton there exposed. The shale containing the speciments is very much lighter than that in which the other Florissant fossil insects seen by me are imbedded, and it is believed to belong near the top of the series.

The following new species have been found in material submitted from various sources for identification.

Glyphodes obscura, new species

Fig. 1, 9, 13

Head, body and wings above moderately dark greyish brown, wings with a faint purplish sheen, hind wing a little paler and somewhat translucent in basal two-thirds. Markings very obscure. Fore wing above: antemedial band w-eakly fulvous. dark-bordered. somewhat oblique; discocellular patch obscure, quadrate; postmedial band weakly fulvous, dark-bordered, outwardly oblique to anal fold, then retracted to lower angle of cell and again outwardlyoblique to inner margin; an obscure dark subterminal line, almost parallel to margin; a narrow dark terminal line; fringe a little paler than an wing, with a dark midline. Hind wing above: a distinct dark dot at lower angle of cell; a very obscure, regular, postmedial band; traces of a dark, crenulated, subterminal line; terminal lineand fringe as on fore wing. Fore wing beneath: base and disc paler than above; ancerntdial line lacking; discocellular marking dark, geminate, joined posteriorly tn the inner end of postmedial line; the latter dark, roughly L-shaped, the part behind the discocellular patch obsolete; termen and fringe as above. Hind wing beneath: much ns above. but discocellular dot obscure and postmedial band dark, not fulvous. Female a little paler than male. Expanse 40 to 44 mm.

The species of Coleoptera listed below have been collected since the publication of a previous list (1944, Canad. Ent., 76:163) of Essex County material.

Mr. W. J. Brown, Division of Entomology, Ottawa, has once more obliged by identifying most of the specimens. Identification of the Oberea and Tetraopes species was made by Mr. W. S. Fisher of the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, B. C.

Telenomus phymatae n. sp. is described from the New World (Canada, USA, Colombia /S.A./), reared from the eggs of Phymata sp. (Heteroptera: Phymatidae).

The letter from Dr. Behr, under the caption, “A Californian Tick,” in the August issue of the Canadian Entomologist, bears on a subject becoming fraught with interest to many investigators engaged in public service. It is with the object of stating my crude ideas on the matter, that of serious and exceptional effects sometimes following insect bites, and of relating my experience with man-attacking ticks, that I contribute this note. First, I think that a distinction should be drawn between the sting or bite of insects (I use both “bite” and “insects” broadly) that seek their prey for food only, as mosquitoes, ticks, and bugs, and those whose attack is primarily and purposely to inflict injury, as centipedes, spiders, and many hymenopterous insects. It is with the former class only that I now concern myself.

Iziphya grandipes is described and illustrated. It is a Carex-infesting species that is known only from Ontario.

The larch sawfly, Pristiphora erichsonii (Htg.), has been studied in Manitoba for over 50 years, since the first outbreaks led to the introduction of the European parasite, Mesoleius tenthredinis Morley. This parasite was credited with reducing the severity of early outbreaks but when host populations again increased in the early 1940's, it was found that M. tenthredinis was ineffective due to the ability of host larvae to encapsulate parasite eggs. Intensive studies of individual mortality factors were initiated at the Winnipeg Laboratory as staff and facilities were expanded in the late 1940's. Development of the life-table concept of recording population data (Morris and Miller 1954) led to co-ordination of several projects until by 1955 a team of research officers was engaged in comprehensive studies of general ecological relationships, parasitism, vertebrate predation, and the effect of defoliation on host stands. Members of the team currently engaged in population dynamics studies and responsible for this exhibit are: Dr.C. H. Buckner, vertebrate predators; W. G. H. Ives, quantitative methods and natural control; L. D. Nairn, interrelations with host tree; Dr. W. J. Turnock, natural and biological control, bioclimatology. Other Winnipeg officers working on related larch sawfly projects are Dr. R. J. Heron, physiological studies, and J. A. Muldrew, biological control with particular reference to immunity to M. tenthredinis.

The end of an outbreak of a sawfly, Neodiprion excitans Rohwer, on Pinus taeda L. first was observed in north-central peninsular Florida during December 1962. To aid in dating oviposition, the position of egg pockets in 1962 summer-shoot pine needles was compared with growth of 1963 summer-shoot pine needles. By this method, peaks of adult emergence and oviposition were judged to have occurred during the last half of August and first half of October 1962.

Eggs hatched in the fall when laid in growing pine needles during October 1962. Larval development was protracted during unusually cold weather and cocoons were spun as late as mid-January 1963. Adult emergence from these cocoons began in late May 1963, two months later than had been previously recorded for Florida.

In contrast, eggs overwintered in the foliage when laid after needle growth had ceased in the fall of 1962. Larval eclosion was in late February and March 1963 and cocoons were spun by mid-May.

This combination of events suggested how a new species overwintering in the egg stage (Neodiprion hetricki Ross) might have evolved in temporal isolation from an ancestral species ordinarily overwintering only in the cocoon (N. excitans).

Members of the pulcher–undulatus species group of Hydroporus Clairville (sensu Fall 1923) were rearranged as follows by Wolfe and Matta (1981): (1) H. pulcher LeConte and 12 other species (each with a bifurcate aedeagal apex) were assigned to the subgenus Heterosternuta E. Strand; (2) H. pilatei Fall and H. triangularis Fall were revised and assigned to a new genus, Falloporus; (3) and the remaining approximately 35 species were placed in the subgenus Neoporus Guignot.

Sub-genus Therisplectes.—“Eyes pubescent; ocelligerous tubercle more or less distinct; eyes (female) with three or four bright green or bluish cross-bands.”

T. Californicus, n. sp. Length 17 mm. Eyes pubescent, with thin purplish bands. Front yellowish-gray; callosity nearly square, brownish, shining, prolonged above; ocelligerous tubercles brownish-black on a black spot. Face and cheeks grayish with white hairs. Palpi yellowish white with small black hairs, Antennæ reddish; annulate portion of third joint black; upper angle prominent. Thorax grayish-brown with the usual gray stripes and golden yellow pubescence; humerus reddish; pleura and pectus grayish with long white hairs. Abdomen brownish-black, sides of first four segments brownish-yellow, which color leaves a row of black irregular spots in the middle, largest on the second segment and smallest on the third; also dark oblique spots on lateral margins. Venter yellowish with yellow pubescence; darker on the last three segments. Femora black, brownish at the tip; front tibiæ dark brown, proximal end lighter; second and third tibiæ darker toward the tip; tarsi dark brown. Wings byaline; costal cell light brown; faint clouds in cross-veins and bifurcation of third vein.

♂, expanse 2⅜ in.; ♀, 2½ in. Fore wings long, pointed, apices depressed, of a uniform pale, rather dirty yellowish colour. There is a row of short intravenular dashes which form a narrow blackish line from apex to inner margin close to thorax. In the females this is almost straight, in the males it has somewhat of a downward curve. Another row of somewhat sagittal-shaped spots forms a second dark band from apex to inner margin a little within inner angle. Hind wings yellowish, semitranslucent, inner third dusky. Discal dot small, black. These markings, while distinct, are not heavy or pronounced. Thorax a little darker than wings. Abdomen dusky above, anal tuft yellowish. Beneath as above, only fainter. Thorax, legs and abdomen same, except inner side of fore femora, which are somewhat orange. Palpi dusky at extreme tip. Antennæ dusky, narrowly bipectinate in ♂, broadly so in ♀. The ♂ has the dusky shades darker than in the ♀, the abdomen being quite dark blackish brown above, contrasting with the light anal tuft. Types 2 pair in my collection from Huachuca Mt., Arizona. I take pleasure in naming this species after Mr. Otho C. Poling, of Quincy, Ill., as a slight token of my appreciation of the many favours he has done me.

The North American species of the genus Cosmia Ochsenheimer are reviewed and four species are recognized: Cosmia calami (Harvey), C. praeacuta (Smith) comb. nov., C. epipaschia (Grote) comb. nov., and C. elisaesp. nov.Achytonix McDunnough syn. nov. is synonymized with Cosmia subgenus Calymnia Hübner. Namangana praeacuta nigramaculata Barnes et Benjamin and Namangana praeacuta orae Barnes et Benjamin are synonymized with Cosmia praeacuta. Illustrations of adults and genitalia are provided.