In exchanging Coleoptera it is common to find many erroneous determinations of species. While these errors are for the most part individual, several are wide spread and seem to be perpetuated by tradition from the older collectious. The object of this paper principally is to direct attention to a few of the latter.

1. Triplax thoracica Say, and T. flavicollis Lac. These species are often found in colonies feeding together on the same fungus, and have the same appearance. The separation of mature specimens is easy, the under side of thoracica being entirely rufous, while the metathorax and abdomen of flavicollis are black or piceous.

A considerable amount of literature has been published on the genus Pseudohazis and its species but there is only one brief mention of the possibility of a two-year life cycle (Dyar 1904). Several rearings of P. eglanterina form normalis Dyar, completed by the author, have provided conclusive evidence that a two-year cycle is the usual life history pattern in southwestern British Columbia. One such rearing is herein described. This two-year cycle, the first winter in the egg stage and the second winter in the pupal stage, is not in phase as mature larvae and adult moths may be found in the same area at the same time. Detailed descriptions of larval and adult stages are in Dyar 1894 and Packard 1912. Acknowledgment is due to Dr. E. G. Munroe, Unit of Systematic Entomology, Ottawa, for his assistance in reviewing literature and specimen material

In November 1958 a Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco) Christmas tree was received at the Missoula Forest Insect Laboratory with a note that it was infested with an insect that might be causing “Christmas-tree blight.” This term is commonly used by the trade to refer to any condition of foliage that might affect salability or price of Christmas trees. Several types of foliage-feeding insects, as well as fungi or poor site conditions, may cause “blighted” or discolored needles; however, on this tree the infestation proved to be caterpillars tunneling in the bark.

While engaged on an Insect Faunal Survey with Mr. W. J. Brown in the northeastern section of New Brunswick, we ran across a very interesting race of Coenonympha inornata on the salt marshes a few miles north of Bathurst. The butterflies were emerging in large numbers during the first week of August, a very late date for Coenonymphas, and were very definitely restricted to the salt meadows or marshes which lie just back of the coast in this region.

Male. Very similar to serraticoris Lint., but on the whole more contrastingly marked on the forewings, the light purplish-gray color being replaced by a whitish gray, heavily suffused with smoky; t. a. and t. p. lines poorly defined, much as in serraticornis, the former showing the usual sharp angle, outlined by a dark streak, above vein I and the latter in this same area with the usual small dark patch, closely approached to t. a. line and separated from it by a palish area. Rather heavy blackish suffusion in median area along inner margin.

Since the publication of the above work several additional forms have been examined, the result of which is recorded herewith. Dr. S. H. Scudder kindly presented to the National Museum co-types of his Tachina theclarum, and of many of the species described in his work on the Butterflies of New England; in every case these conform to the positions assigned them in my Synopsis.

The first record of the occurrence in Canada of the pear fruit sawfly, Hoplocampa brevis (Klug), was made on 2 June 1964 when several larvae were collected in pear fruits near Queenston, Ontario, about one mile west of the Niagara River. The identity of the species was confirmed 26 May 1965 by Dr. H. E. Milliron, Taxonomic Section, Entomology Research Institute, Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, from three adult sawflies taken in pear orchards 12–19 May 1965 and one adult that emerged in a cage 17 May 1965 from an overwintered larva.

Egg.—Fusiform thick in middle, tapering to a small rounded summit; marked by about 18 longitudianl ribs, these being low, narrow, the spaces between flat and crossed by many fine ridges. Color yellow-green. Duration of this stage about four days.

Aerial colour infra-red photographs were used to detect grasshopper damage to cereal grains, determine extent of damage, estimate crop yield, and identify crops. The detection and identification of grasshopper damage was facilitated by the development of a dichotomous key which differentiates grasshopper damage from other crop anomalies. Crop types and yield were determined from correlations between the optical density of the photographs and the biomass of standing crops.

Cost of an aerial survey was estimated at $0.02 per hectare as compared with ground survey cost of $0.20 per hectare. Information provided by an aerial survey of damage has the potential to assist grain growers, extension personnel, and researchers in evaluating the influence of grasshoppers on grain production

Data from larval head capsule measurements are used to determine allometry of size for final-instar siblings Simulium truncatum (Lundström) (= EFG/C) and S. rostratum (Lundström) (= ACD) of the S. venustum/verecundum complex (Diptera: Simuliidae). Measurements were evaluated using principal axis and major reduced axis regression. Isometry of size was accepted for only some ratios and it is argued that a character’s “environmental stability” should be assessed before it is considered as a taxonomic character.

Catocala obscura, Strecker. — Larvæ taken under hickory bark. Foodplant hickory. Described June 1st, 1903.

General colour, gray with pale brown and black markings.

No transverse band and no elevation of eighth segment.

Head broad as first segment, flattened, gray, with a black dash on each cheek, extending from mouth two-thirds of the way to top of head, and ending in a point.

Tubercles white, but not prominent; the dorsal tubercles being in a brownish stripe that is fairly distinct the entire length.

Growth, number of fusions, and polyploidy of ovarian trophocytes were studied in the European earwig, Forficula auricularia L., from the imaginal moult to oviposition, by examining sections of ovarioles and whole mounts of ovaries. During a reproductive cycle, the nucleus of the basal trophocyte enlarges its mean diameter from 5 to 170 ± 33 μm, successively absorbing the trophocyte nuclei of both adjacent follicles and undergoing seven endoreplications. The nucleus thus increased its DNA content 192 times, which is 66.7% more than in the artioploid type of polyploidy. However, vitellogenesis lasted about three times longer than previtellogenesis. This type of polyploidy accelerates oogenesis, allows an earlier oviposition, and may constitute an adaptation specific for the Montréal population of earwigs.