Insect control methods are usually aimed directly at the insects. Examples are insect exclusion, poisons, and the more recent methods which upset metabolism, nervous coordination, sensory perception, or fertility. Some methods are indirect and involve manipulation of insect parasites, predators and diseases, habitat destruction, and host management. Only selection and breeding for host resistance are directed at the host of the insect. This is somewhat surprising because the host–insect relationship presents some of the most vulnerable aspects of the life of an insect.

The tachinid genus Macromya (type, depressa R.-D.) as here considered includes five species of which three are described as new. All members are quite similar in external adult morphology as well as in biology. In the accompanying key to the currently known species, the distinctions are made chiefly on basic color differences. The center of maximum population for the genus occurs in the neotropics; its range however extends well within the southern limits of the nearctic region.

This review of the tribe Xyleborini (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) includes two genera, Xyleborus Eichhoff, with 17 species, and Xylosandrus Reitter, containing 3 species. All species are described and most are illustrated. Keys for the separation of the genera and species are provided. Distributional and biological data are given. New combinations are: Xyleborus obliquus (Leconte) (= Pityophthorus obliquus Leconte); X. lecontei (Hopkins) (= Ambrosiodmus lecontei Hopkins), and X. sayi (Hopkins) (= Anisandrus sayi Hopkins). New synonymies are: Xyleborus obliquus (Leconte) (= Ambrosiodmus linderae Hopkins); X. obesus Leconte (= Anisandrus populi Swaine); X. ferrugineus (Fabricius) (= X. retusicollis Zimmerman and X. soltaui Hopkins); X. xylographus (Say) (= X. inermis Eichhoff and X. planicollis Zimmerman); X. volvulus (Fabricius) (= X. schwarzi Hopkins and X. rileyi Hopkins), and X. howardi Hopkins (= X. fitchi Hopkins). A Japanese species, X. rubricollis Eichhoff, is reported from the United States for the first time. A neotype is designated for X. xylographus (Say).

The genus Paranthrene Hübner was thought to be represented in Japan by four species, ferale (Leech), pernix (Leech), regale (Butler), and purpurea Yano, but study of the larvae suggest that regale (= yezonica Matsumura) and purpurea are in the genus Nokona Matsumura and pernix is near or in Vitacea Engelhardt. The larvae of ferale Leech have not been examined. Nokona is raised from subgeneric status.

Footnotes in the larval revision of the North American Aegeriidae (MacKay 1968) indicate that additional material of Cissuvora ampelopsis Engelhardt and [Carmenta] phoradendri Engelhardt was received too late for incorporation in the study. The material consists of a prepupal larva associated with an adult that is posifively identified as Cissuvora ampelopsis and two last-instar larvae believed to be phoradendri, and is discussed in this paper. The study of the material indicates that the unique larva referred to in the 1968 work as “probably Cissuvora ampelopsis” is of an unidentified genus and species, and that the species phoradendri is in Synanthedon rather than in Genus I of the Carmenta group. The larva of the true ampelopsis is described and illustrated here and the characters that key the larvae of phoradendri to Synanthedon are listed.

Laboratory olfactometer experiments made at constant ambient temperature (29°C) demonstrated that the protection afforded mammalian hosts by 2-ethyl hexanediol-1,3 (’6–12’) against Aedes aegypti L. was greater at high (82%) than at low (35%) ambient relative humidity. The physical and physiological implications are discussed.