This paper includes descriptions of apterous viviparous females of five new species of Iziphya. In North America this sedge-infesting genus was formerly represented by a single species, I. flabella (Sanborn), which was described from a single apterous viviparous female (Sanborn, 1904, p. 37).

The boxelder twig borer, Proteoteras willingana (Kearfott) was described in 1904 from specimens reared by T. N. Willing, Regina, Assiniboia (now Saskatchewan), Canada, and temporarily placed in the genus Proteopteryx (Kearfott, 1904, 1905). In 1923 it was transferred to the genus Proteoteras (Heinrich, 1923). Early knowledge of life history and habits of this species is very fragmentary (de Gryse, 1924, 1925; Swaine, 1916, 1917; Washburn, 1910).

The genus Symballophthalmus Becker, 1889 (= Marcroptera Becker, 1889, preocc.), was erected for Tachydromia dissimilis Fallén (= M. pictipes Becker). This species, known from central and northern Europe, has been the only one definitely referred to the genus.

In 1954 and 1955, two male and two female specimens referable to this genus were collected in the vicinity of a spruce bog near Ottawa, Ontario, and five females were collected in Michigan during several years. These agree very well with the description of the type species except in the bristling of the front legs of the male and in details of the hypopygium.

When a crop has been destroyed by the pale western cutworm, Agrotis orthogonia Morr., one to two weeks may elapse before plants of the second seeding emerge. During this time the larvae may be starved or, at least, subjected to a suboptimum food supply. Frequently the second seeding may be of a different crop from the one that was destroyed.

A previous investigation (Jacobson, 1952) showed that mortality of the starved larvae varied directly with temperature and inversely with size of larvae. Seamans and McMillan (1935) reported that, when the larvae were fed various foods, differences were found in the rate of development and survival.

Investigations by Baker and Stewart (1928), Sleesman (1934), and Matthewman et al. (1953) on varietal resistance of seeded onions to the onion maggot, Hylemya antiqua (Meig.), gave no significant results, probably because they were made on small numbers of commercial varieties. This is a report on field and greenhause tests from 1955 to 1957 on 44 varieties of Allium spp. grown from seed. The variety Early Yellow Globe was used as a standard of susceptibility to the onion maggot in all tests.

Laricobius erichsonii Rosen. is one of several species that have been introduced into the Atlantic Provinces since 1933 for the biological control of the balsam woolly aphid, Adelges piceae (Ratz.). This small beetle occurs commonly on A. piceae infestations in Europe where it is one of the more numerous predators of the adelgid (Mesnil, 1950:). Franz (1953) described its range in Europe as from the Italian Alps to near southern Denmark and from Normandy almost to the Carpathian Mountains, srating that its distribution is bound to that of the Coniferae on which its prey live. Franz also described the morphology of all stages in detail and discussed the bionomics and ecology in Europe. Prior to these studies the biology of thc insect was unknown.

Through the kindness of Dr. R. Stace-Smith of the Canada Department of Agriculture, Plant Pathology Laboratory, Vancouver, B.C., I have been able to collect and examine specimens of a species of Amphorophora occurring on Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) in British Columbia. This species, as well as showing morphological differences which separate it from all described species, differs also from them ecologically and in its ability to transmit certain Rubus viruses. (Stace-Smith, in press). Professors M. A. Palmer and George F. Knowlton have both seen some of this material and have given it as their opinion that it cannot be placed among the known species of Amphorophora. It is therefore described here as a new species.

Root maggots infest radish in Manitoba to a limited extent each year. As early as 1920 Norman Criddle noted damage at Treesbank. In the Brandon area the infestations have usually been less than 10 per cent but have occasionally exceeded 20 per cent. Hylemya planipalpis (Stein) is the principal species.

There is little literature on this pest. Most references to root maggots on radish refer to other species. For example, Matthewman et al. (1950) identified the cabbage maggot, H. brassicae (Bouche), as the predominant species on radish at Ottawa whereas H. cilicrura (Rond.) and H. trichodactyla (Rond.) were given secondary importance. H. brassicae has not yet been reported in AIanitoba. In California Essig (1915) stated that Phorbia planipalpis (= H. planipalpis) was present but not the cabbage maggot. Brooks (1951) reported H. planipalpis to be the major root maggot pest of radish in the Prairie Provinces of Canada.

Previous work (11) showed that two species of grasshoppers, Melanoplus bivittatus (Say) and Camnula pellucida (Scudd.), normally prefer a dry atmosphere. The present paper deals with the effects of starvation and of moulting on the humidity reactions of these species.

Materials and Methods

To test the effect of starvation on humidity reactions, adults of the two species from laboratory-reared cultures were used. Each adult was placed in a separate, cylindrical, plastic-screen cage, which mas eight inches long, two inches in diameter, and corked at both ends, The caged insects, without food or water, were placed for four or five days, or until death, in racks in a rearing room maintained at 30 ± 0.5°C. and 46 ± 1 per cent relative humidity. At intervals triplicated samples of ten adults, of one species and sex, were removed from the cages to test their reactions to alternative humidities of 0 and 90 per cent in an olfactometer (11).

The dispersal of the pine needle scale has long been a problem to entomologists. Although its transfer on nursery stock has been accepted as a means of dispersal, the method of its spread from tree to tree in a localized area has not been investigated previously. There are two stages in its development when it is able to move about by its own volition: the crawler or first instar nymphs wander for short distances on the twigs of the host tree and the adult males move about freely. Effective spread of this scale occurs only in the crawler stage. Phoresy is unlikely because nymphs have extreme difficulty in crossing small gaps such as would be encountered in transferring from a needle to an insect or bird and parent scales do not secrete substances attractive to carriers as described by Mahdihassan (1933) for some lac-insects. Because of the limited motility of the first instar nymphs, dissemination by wind required investigation.

Apterous Viviparous Female

Holotype.–Dorsum of head with six blunt or slightly clavate setae. Frontal tubercles well developed, smooth, diverging, each with one long, (blunt seta on dorsal surface and one or two on ventral surface. Antenna about as long as body, third segment expanded just distad of base to almost twice its basal diameter; 56 small, tubercle-like, secondary sensoria scattered along whole length of one third segment, 60 on other; one fourth segment with four secondary sensoria, the other with five; a single, large, primary sensorium near apex of each fifth segment, and one large one and five or six adjacent smaller ones near apices of basal portion of sixth segment; each small primary sensorium on sixth segment with a central papilla; all primary sensoria lacking marginal, cilia-like fimbriations. Antennal setae distinctly capitate and about equal in length to basal diameter of third segment. Lengths of antenna1 segments as follows: III, 0.85 mm.; IV, 0.4 mm.; V, 0.3 mm.; VI, 0.15-0.85 mm. Rostrum reaching slightly beyond middle coxae; apical segment 0.13 mm. long, with 17 slender pointed setae in addition to usual apical ones.

During investigations at the Charlottetown laboratory on the biologies of root maggots and their predators, an attempt was made to identify the various insect species present in rutabaga fields. Although many specimens of several species were observed around rutabaga plants, few of them were captured with ordinary sweep nets. The mobile collecting cage described herein was devised to collect large numbers of many species of insects alive and uninjured.

Apanteles fumiferanae Vier. and Glylpta fumiferanae (Vier.) are two well known hymenopterous parasites of the spruce budworm in Canada. While studying a microsporidian disease of the budworm caused by Perezia fumiferanae Thom. (Thomson, 1955) it was observed that occasionally the microsporidian and one of the hymenopterous parasites occurred together in the same host. This paper is a report of a study of the effect of the microsporidian on the hymenopterous parasites.