Dioryctria reniculella may be occasionally found in abundance feeding on cones and foliage of spruce in Quebec. In this paper, the life history, habits, and description of immature stages as yet unreported in the literature are presented, along with short notes on populations and natural control organisms.

The mountain-ash sawfly, Pristiphora geniculata (Htg.), a pest on Sorbus spp., is known to occur in Europe, Asia, and North America. It has two generations a year in eastern Canada but only one in northern Quebec. The first generation predominates. The sawfly overwinters as a larva in a cocoon in litter or soil. Adults emerge from late May to early July, and lay eggs in pockets between the epidermal lavers around the edges of leaflets. The eggs hatch in about a week and the larvae feed from two to three weeks. The second generation, which starts in late July, is usually small. Adults producing the first generation may come from both generations of the preceding year whereas adults producing the second generation stem only from the first. Parthenogenesis is facultative and arrhenotokous; about 61% of adults reared were females. The male larvae have four instars and the female five. Some larvae remain in diapause up to five years. Foliage consumption of female larvae was about 1.4 times that of male larvae.P. geniculata lacks adequate density-dependent control factors and an important limiting factor may be its scattered food supply. The introduction of parasites, predators, or disease organisms might be beneficial.

Can. Ent. 98: 693-699 (1966) Epinotia ,nanana (Tr.) has become increasingly important in recent years in Quebec as it has caused severe defoliation of ornamental spruce trees in the Berthierville area, Quebec. The insect has a one-year life cycle and overwinters in the larval stage, mainly in the fifth instar, in a mined needle. Damage is most noticeable in the spring. Fairly heavy mortality, probably due to unfavourable climatic conditions, occurs among overwintering larvae. The amount of control exerted by parasites is always low.

This insect was first noticed during the summer of 1939 in a young red pine plantation in the vicinity of Berthierville, Que. A large number of mature larvae were collected at the end of the same season and placed on the foliage of small red pine trees enclosed in wire cages in the field. The larvae soon left the trees to enter the soil for overwintering. The following spring, numerous adults emerged in the cages, and in order to obtain an identification, several specimens were sent to Dr. O. Peck, Entomology Division, Ottawa, who considered that this was apparently a new species of the genus Cephalcia. Later, many specimens were sent to Dr. W. W. Middlekauff, of the University of California, who described the species under the name C. marginata (1953).

No abstract