The increasing body of knowledge about the armored scales is beginning to reveal manv unique aspects in the life cycles of these highly specialized insects. Such information is not only of value to the entomologist and those concerned with the control of scales but is also becoming important in such diverse fields as genetics, ecology, cytology, and physiology; armored scales may well find an expanding place in the laboratory as subjects for researches in a variety of fields. Pseudaulacaspis pentagona (Targ.) has one of the most unusual, yet to date one of the best understood life cycles of the armored scales. Various aspects of its biology have been described by Berlese (1910), Smit (1953), Dustan (1953), and Monti (1955). Accounts of its natural enemies or biological control programs have been given by Berlese (1910) for Italy, by Ogilvie (1928) and Simmonds (1955) for Bermuda, by Bennett (1956) for Trinidad, and Clausen (1956) for Florida. P. pentagona is a pest of economic importance on a wide variety of hosts throughout an extekive geographic distribution (Anon., 1956), and has been cultured extensively in the biological control laboratory for the mass-rearing of scale parasites and predators. Recent investirzations of the sex determining mechanik and chromosome behaviour (Brown and Bennett, 1957) have arain shown unusual processes and relationships, some of which appear to occur in many other species of armored scales. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the life cycle of P. pentagona as it is known from field and laboratory studies and from cytological and genetic investigations.

Records of Megachile inermis Prov. in trap-nests are given in order to supplement previous reports on the nesting biology of the species. In Saskatchewan, Peck and Bolton (1946) did not obtain nests in 1943 with 1/4-inch holes bored in logs, but were successful in 1944 with 5/16-inch holes. The cells in 14 nests averaged 4.2, range 2 to 7, and their rearings produced 10 males and no females. In Manitoba, Stephen (1955) associated the nesting of M. inermis with burnt-over or waste poplar. The bee utilized the poplar after the trees had decayed sufficiently to permit the bee to burrow into it. He found no indication of nesting in borer tunnels, but reported that the bees themselves excavated tunnels from a crack or crevice or the exposed end of a log. Stephen (1956) described the excavating activity of the bee in poplar, and reared 3 males from cells transferred to glass tubes.

A number of techniques have been developed for rearing cutworms of economic importance. Most of those that were developed primarily for lifehistory studies (Crumb, 1929; Hocking, 1952; King and Atkinson, 1927; Satterthwait, 1933; Snyder, 1954) are unsatisfactory for mass rearing. Mass rearing techniques have been developed for several cutworms of economic importance (Jacobson and Blakeley, 1957; Swingle et al., 1941; Waters, 1937; and Wylie and Palm, 1940). However, the black cutworm, Agrotis ypsilon (Rott.), is difficult to rear because of cannibalism.

Sequential sampling methods have been developed for population surveys of a number of forest insects (4, 6, 7, 9). These methods permit rapid classification of populations into broad infestation classes with predetermined accuracy and a minimum of sampling, and are useful for mapping and recording widespread infestations.

The method of assessing egg populations of the larch sawfly, Pristiphora erichsonii (Htg.), developed by Ives (3) for intensive population studies, was not suitable for surveys because of the large sample size required. A sequential plan for the larch sawfly using hypothetical infestation classes was briefly reviewed by Ives (2). This plan is modified in the present paper in accordance with new data that have accumulated from observations on plots in the Whiteshell Forest Reserve and other stands in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

During May, 1957 near Lumby, B.C., there was a reoccurrence of the gregarious flight behaviour of Priacma serrata males observed the preceding year (Atkins, 1957). Once more these beetles exhibited a strong attraction to “Perfex” laundry bleach, which is an aqueous solution containing 5-5.5 per cent sodium hypochlorite and 4.3 per cent sodium chlorate. They swarmed around the bleach-treated articles every fair day from the 5th of May until the first week of June. This situation presented an ideal opportunity to study certain aspects of the behaviour of this strange insect and accordingly observations were made on the beetles' flight both in the field and under laboratory conditions.

In recent years there have been marked increases in populations of a pine weevil, Pissodes approximatus Hopk., in southern Ontario, especially in areas where pine trees, particularly Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris L., are grown in pure stands for the Christmas tree market. In several such areas where large weevil populations have built up in the stumps of the previous year's cutting, damage to remaining trees by adults feeding on the twigs and small branches has been heavy. Not only has the quality and value of the trees been reduced by this damage, but in some instances the trees have been killed (5).

In 1956, the spruce budworm infestation which had been in progress in the Lower St. Lawrence and Gaspe Peninsula for about eight years, covered the whole territory from the Rimouski River to the eastern tip of the Peninsula (Fig. 1). In many localities throughout the region repeated defoliation had been severe enough to cause some trees to die (3) . Had it not been for the extensive aerial spraying operations practised in this region since 1954, tree mortality would undoubtedly have been even more widespread.

The flight habits of any scolytid beetle are an important aspect of its biology, and times of flight should be known for effective chemical protection of logs against its attacks. Consequently, during the course of biological and chemical control investigations of the ambrosia beetle, Trypodendron lineatum (Oliv.), from 1954 through 1956, much attention was directed to a study of its flight activity. This species is well known to attack early in the spring. There are other attack flights later in the season but far fewer beetles are involved then. The beetles also fly at the time they leave the brood logs to enter forest litter, where they overwinter. Several methods were used to study the influence of weather, season, and other factors on flights of Trypodendron and, to a lesser extent, of other scolytids. These methods and some of the data secured are described and discussed in this paper.

The seed-corn maggot, Hylemya cilicrura (Rond.), is a cosmopolitan pest and feeds on a wide range of hosts. The maggots cause extensive damage to seeds and seedlings of beans, soybeans, peas, corn, and cucurbits. Hitherto laboratory investigations have been hampered because the maggot has been very difficult to rear continuously.

Biological studies have indicated that such diverse diets as soybeans (Harukawa et al., 1934), cottonseed meal and fish meal (Reid, 1940), and potato (Leach, 1926) serve to rear the maggot to the adult stage. However, it has been difficult to maintain an adult colony for the time required for mating and oviposition. Reid (1940) used field-collected flies as a source of eggs in his experiments, but failed to get a second generation. Successive generations were reared by Ristich (1950), who provided a high protein diet for adults held in glass cages; in attempts to follow this method at Chatham, only one complete generation could be reared. A more satisfactory method of rearing the species continuously is described in this paper.

Riegert et al. (1954) showed that nymphs and adults of Carnula pellucida (Scudd.) and Melanoplus mexicanus (Sauss.) released on bare, cultivated fields, dispersed up to 240 yards during six days. They showed no ability to orient themselves and move toward a food supply. Sixty per cent of M. mexicanus were within 50 yards of the release point after seven days. Experiments conducted from the Belleville laboratory in 1952 and 1953 showed that M. mexicanus dispersed less widely than this when released in a field population of grasshoppers, mostly M. mexicanus, where there was adequate food. This investigation was of special interest to the junior author (R. W. Smith), who was interested in relating the field distribution of adult parasites (as shown by the occurrence of immature parasites in captured grasshoppers) to various environmental factors. The validity of using such data for this purpose would depend upon the movement of the host from the time of parasitization to the time of capture. The following are details of the investigation.

During investigations on the life-history and habits of the cabbage maggot, (Hylemya brassicae (Bouché), at Charlottetown in 1956, specimens of the dipterous predator Scatophaga stercoraria (L.) were observed destroying adults in an outdoor study cage. Identification of the specimens was confirmed by Dr. J. R. Vockeroth, Entomology Division, Ottawa.