The 6th-instar larvae of Noctua pronuba (L.) are described and illustrated. The larvae, although similar to other noctuinae genera, can be distinguished by the hypopharyngeal complex and mandible morphology. Life history notes based on larvae and adults collected in Nova Scotia are also given.

The species of Synophromorpha Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) are reviewed. One new species is described (Synophromorpha kaulbarsi; type locality: Naupan, Puebla, Mexico). The previously described species (S. rubi Weld, S. sylvestris (O.S.), and S. terricola Weld) are redescribed, and a key to species is presented. All species are illustrated for the first time. Synophromorpha sylvestris is designated type-species for the genus and a lectotype is chosen. Hypotheses on the phylogenetic relationships between the species of Synophromorpha are presented.

The demographic statistics and the temperature requirements for development of Ephedrus californicus Baker were determined under constant laboratory conditions. At 23 °C, females provided each day with forty 2nd-instar pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), lived for 13.4 days and laid 1193 eggs on average; the highest fecundity of any female was 1762 eggs. For an assumed population sex ratio of 1:1 males to females, the intrinsic rate of increase, r, was 0.371 females·female−1·day−1 when all eggs laid were counted. The lower temperature threshold for development, t, was estimated as 6.83 °C, and the time-to-adult, K, as 228.9 degree-days. The potential use of E. californicus in the biological control of the lupine aphid, Macrosiphum albifrons Essig, in England is considered.

The spatial and statistical distribution of Zeiraphera canadensis Mut. and Free. (spruce budmoth) within the crown of white spruce (< 4 m high) was investigated in northern New Brunswick. A 15-cm branch segment, measured distally from the scales of the branch’s apical growth and taken from the upper one-third of the crown, is considered an adequate sample unit for density estimates of spruce budmoth eggs and larvae. Sample sizes required to estimate spruce budmoth larval densities with given levels of precision and confidence were determined. A sequential sampling plan to classify spruce budmoth populations as low or high (potentially leading to growth reduction and deformed leaders in white spruce) was also developed.

During 1982 and 1984, ground releases of Trichogramma minutum Riley were assessed for control of the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens), on 12- to 20-year-old, white spruce stands in northern Ontario. Maximum parasitism of susceptible egg masses was 16 and 87% following the release of 480 000 and 12 million female T. minutum per hectare, respectively. Releases at intervals of 1 week maintained parasitism of susceptible egg masses at constant levels throughout the oviposition period of spruce budworm. When parasitism of susceptible egg masses was maintained above 78.2% during the ovipositional period, total egg mass parasitism averaged 58.0% and resulted in an 80.3% reduction of overwintering 2nd-instar larvae. The optimal strategy for reducing spruce budworm was two releases of T. minutum at an interval of 1 week in the ovipositional period. This allowed a second generation of parasitoids to emerge from the spruce budworm eggs that were more efficient in maintaining high levels of parasitism than those emerging from the standard rearing host. Natural parasitism of spruce budworm egg masses was less than 4% and there was no carryover of parasitism in the years following inundative release. The rate of T. minutum release necessary to achieve effective mortality of spruce budworm during outbreak populations is discussed briefly.

Thelytokous reproduction was developed and fixed in arrhenotokous Muscidifurax raptor Girault and Sanders by mating hybrid females, of interhemispheric strains, with naturally occurring males of M. uniraptor Kogan and Legner. A change in ovipositional behavior was shown by these mated hybrid females which subsequently produced thelytokous Fx offspring for 10 generations. Sperm depletion and extranuclear factors are considered.

Multiple funnel, Schlitzfalle, and drainpipe traps baited with Linoprax® or Biolure® semiochemical baiting systems for the ambrosia beetle Trypodendron lineatum (Oliv.) were evaluated in similar experiments in British Columbia, West Germany, and Norway. In British Columbia, the Biolure-baited traps caught more T. lineatum of both sexes than did Linoprax-baited traps. The Linoprax-baited traps caught more male T. lineatum in West Germany and Norway but fewer females than the Biolure system. Low percentages of female T. lineatum were often recorded at drainpipe traps.

Dacnusa dryas (Nixon), a multivoltine parasite of the alfalfa blotch leafminer, Agromyza frontella (Rondani), has become established in eastern Canada. Adults deposit their eggs singly in the hemocoel of the actively feeding host larvae. A trophamnion forms between the chorion and the embryo and the elliptical egg swells, becoming spherical and transparent. On hatching, the trophamnion adheres to the 1st instar throughout its development. The first moult occurs in the newly formed puparium where development of the parasite is completed. Winter is passed as a mature larva within the soil-borne host. Descriptions of the immature stages are given.

Laboratory bioassays showed the occurrence of 8.5-fold resistance to cyhexatin and ca. 15-fold resistance to dicofol in laboratory-selected populations of European red mite (Panonychus ulmi (Koch)). Surveys, in 1984, of 45 orchards, using field-collected mites exposed to discriminating concentrations of cyhexatin or dicofol, detected resistance to cyhexatin in ca. 29% of the populations. Resistance to dicofol was identified in 2 of 45 assays.

The sex pheromone components of European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hbn.), from southern Alberta were identified in washes and extracts of abdomen tips from calling female moths. This is a Z strain population as (Z)-11- and (E)-11-tetradecenyl acetates were isolated in a ratio 100:2.4, and a corresponding synthetic blend in a ratio of 100:3 attracted males in the field. Dodecyl alcohol, tetradecyl alcohol and acetate, and (Z)-11-tetradecenol were also identified, but none of these components nor other "pheromone-like" mono-unsaturated C10 to C16 acetates had any effect on increasing the trap catches of male moths under field conditions. However, the addition of (Z)-9-dodecenyl acetate or (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate to the synthetic pheromone blend significantly reduced the capture of male moths, even though these compounds were not detectable in the female extracts. Pheromone blends used for monitoring the Z strain of the European corn borer must be essentially free, ca.< 0.1%, of these acetates. A commercially available, sticky-surface, delta-type trap was the most satisfactory of several tested for capturing moths under prairie conditions.

The strawberry cutworm, Amphipoea interoceanica (Smith), has recently become an important pest of strawberry plants in Manitoba (Ayre 1980) and Quebec (Mailloux and Bostanian 1985). Larvae damage or kill the plants and commercial plantings are sometimes heavily damaged. Strawberry cutworm is widely distributed in North America and is broadly sympatric with a morphologically similar species, Amphipoea americana (Speyer) (Forbes 1954), which is occasionally a pest of corn (Gibson 1920). Sex pheromones of these species have not been reported, although Roelofs and Comeau (1971) found that males of strawberry cutworm were attracted to (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate (abbrev. Z9- 14:Ac). A sex attractant for strawberry cutworm would provide a convenient method for monitoring population levels in the vicinity of strawberry fields.