A prevalent and distinctive infectious interstitial pneumonia (IIP) of immunocompetent laboratory rats was suspected to be caused by a putative virus, termed rat respiratory virus, but this was never substantiated. To study this disease, 2 isolators were independently populated with rats from colonies with endemic disease, which was perpetuated by the regular addition of naive rats. After Pneumocystis was demonstrated by histopathology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the lungs of rats from both isolators and an earlier bedding transmission study, the relationship between Pneumocystis and IIP was explored further by analyzing specimens from 3 contact transmission experiments, diagnostic submissions, and barrier room breeding colonies, including 1 with and 49 without IIP. Quantitative (q) PCR and immunofluorescence assay only detected Pneumocystis infection and serum antibodies in rats from experiments or colonies in which IIP was diagnosed by histopathology. In immunocompetent hosts, the Pneumocystis concentration in lungs corresponded to the severity and prevalence of IIP; seroconversion occurred when IIP developed and was followed by the concurrent clearance of Pneumocystis from lungs and resolution of disease. Experimentally infected immunodeficient RNU rats, by contrast, did not seroconvert to Pneumocystis or recover from infection. qPCR found Pneumocystis at significantly higher concentrations and much more often in lungs than in bronchial and nasal washes and failed to detect Pneumocystis in oral swabs. The sequences of a mitochondrial ribosomal large-subunit gene region for Pneumocystis from 11 distinct IIP sources were all identical to that of P. carinii. These data provide substantial evidence that P. carinii causes IIP in immunocompetent rats.

SUMMARY Anthocoris nemorum is currently under investigation as a potential agent for the control of damson‐hop aphid Phorodon humuli on hops. Detailed here is a method of rearing A. nemorum to provide a large number of insects with a predetermined age structure for mass release in the field. It is designed to minimise culture maintenance, with components and materials which are readily obtained as, or can be modified from, stock items. Initial cultures are collected from the field, as adults, in early autumn and artificially overwintered. These are recovered in early spring, with females being placed in oviposition chambers, and the harvesting of ova regulated to provide synchronisation of eclosion within batches. Larvae are reared until they reach the desired instar for mass release and then held in controlled cold storage until required.

The rapid carbohydrate degradation (Carr Microbiologicals Wichita, Kans.) microtube method is a new test system designed for the identification of Neisseria spp. The system consists of four microtubes containing different carbohydrates in a peptone-Bitone basal medium. This method was evaluated for accuracy and speed in identifying species of Neisseria. Of the 386 clinical isolates used in this study, 98.4% were correctly identified to species level in 4 h with the rapid carbohydrate degradation system; parallel testing of the same isolates with conventional cystine-tryptic agar resulted in 96.1% accuracy in 48 h.

Abstract. 1. Observations were made on the biology of Anthocoris gallarumulmi De Geer (Hemiptera ‐ Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) in West Central Scotland from 1973 until 1975. The life cycle was intimately linked with those of its principal prey species Schizoneura ulmi and S.patchae, leaf roll‐gall aphids, and elm, their primary host (Ulmus sp.). 2. Overwintered adults emerged in late April/May and could be found on a number of early flowering tree species, before congregating on elm in late May/June. This population was univoltine and exhibited obligatory female reproductive diapause. 3. Overwintered females emerged already mated but the subsequent pre‐oviposition period was 25 days and oviposition period 27 days. Ova were deposited only in close association with galls of S.ulmi and Spatchae, and behavioural variations were shown between sites. Fecundity was c. 16 ova per female. 4. The incubation period was c. 8 days with the subsequent period of larval development 38–53 days, during which time the diet was almost exclusively either S.ulmi or S.patchae. Intergall migration was characteristic of post second instar larvae, which resulted in the concentration of fifth instar larvae and adults in a limited number of galls. It was during this period of local high population density that mating occurred. 5. Adults left elm within 14 days of imaginal ecdysis and thereafter, until overwintering, were recorded in only very low numbers from a range of tree, shrub and herb species. 6. Overwintering adults selected as hibernacula the bark of four tree species but principally Acer pseudoplatanus and Quercus robor. Females required a period of at least 75 days of cold ‘shock’ to terminate reproductive diapause. 7. Mortality among males surviving to spring emergence was 67%.