Marshall Laird

Studies of the spray zone of Churchill Falls, Labrador☆

Abstract In 1970 , with the cooperation of the Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation Limited, an intensive biological research programme was commenced in the Churchill Falls area. The initial objective is to study the spray zone of the Falls before it is altered by the diversion of the Churchill River. Spray from the Falls is apparently responsible for the maintenance of three spray pools and for the enriched flora and vegetation in the spray zone, which contains an abundance of moisture-loving plants. The vegetation shows abrupt changes with exposure to spray and there is a general retardation of the phenology. The forest in the spray zone is luxuriant in comparison with that outside the sprays influence. Bryophytes are the dominant cryptogams of the zone and have a high percentage fertility there. Permanent quadrats have been set up to monitor succession in typical sprayzone bryophyte communities. Work has also begun on black-fly pathogens and parasites. An intensified research programme is being continued in the spray zone and surrounding area by Memorial University through 1971 and hopefully in subsequent years.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF INSECT CONTROL BY MICROORGANISMS

Most of the data concerning this topic are still to be collected. To address oneself to this subject now is thus comparable with, for example, attempting to review the environmental impact of insect control by synthetic organic chemicals two decades ago. The modern era dawned for both biological and chemical insect control near the beginning of World War 11. At that time, milky disease was registering microbial control’s first real success, the target organism being the Japanese beetle in the eastern United States.’ Also, at a point in history when food production had never been more important, DDT was scoring the first of its spectacular successes by saving Switzerland’s potato crop from the Colorado beetle.3 There we have, right at the outset, the two chief actors in our environmental drama: the chemical, linked with the powers of darkness (man-made), and the biological, representing the powers of light (from nature). Bacillus popilliae and DDT do share certain attributes. Modern technology makes both available in sufficient amounts and at a price that permits practical use; both are environmentally persistent and were first utilized under crisis conditions without an adequate amount of information concerning their potential impact upon nontarget organisms. Had they not been so used, both might still be waiting on the shelf. We still do not possess full information about the consequences of using either. Nevertheless, subsequent events have not shaken earlier confidence in the strict host specificity of B. popilliae (although exacting safety tests are now being contemplated in the United States?). The broad spectrum of effectiveness of DDT has been convincingly demonstrated and so has the fundamental importance to control of these two issues-resistance by target economic pests and disease vectors and hazard to nontarget species. Concerning the first issue, for example, seven years ago housefly resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis exotoxin was noted.4 With respect to environmental hazard, there has never been a weapon that lacked the capacity to harm innocent victims-usually when employed rashly, though sometimcs when used with the greatest discrimination. Thus, considering the above and the thesis that the key to control efficacy and selectivity is not the individual agent but rather the overall methodology, we must not lightly discard any weapon from our arsenal. My subject is the safety of “microbial pesticides,” as related to environmental quality. Ignoffo5 concentrated upon man as the nontarget organism of primary concern. Obviously man is the nontarget organism of ultimate primary concern. He fires the rifle and casts the rod to destroy for pleasure those game animals reserved for this purpose by conservationists; and he alone is capable of manifesting more than ephemeral concern for, or appreciation of the beauty of, any of those co-occupants of the earth’s ecosystems defended by environmentalists. What we know of the environmental impact of insect control by microorganisms is almost all related to economic entomology. It concerns apparently obli-

COELOMOMYCES OMORII SP. N. AND C. RAFFAELEI COLUZZI AND RIOUX VAR. PARVUM VAR. N. FROM MOSQUITOES IN JAPAN

Larval mosquitoes from rice fields near Nagasaki yielded 2 distinctively ornamented fungi of the genus Coelomomyces (Blastocladiales). Anopheles sinensis Wiedemann harbored C. raffaelei Coluzzi and Rioux var. parvum var. n. which is distinguished by the very markedly smaller size of its sporangia from the European type. C. omorii sp. n., a member of the anophelesica group and most closely related to C. iliensis Dubitskii, Dzerzhinskii, and Danebekov from culicine larvae of Kazakhstan, USSR, is de- scribed from the important vector of Japanese B encephalitis, Culex tritaeniorhynchus summorosus Dyar.

A mosquito parasite from a mosquito predator.

Abstract The fungus Coelomomyces macleayae has been reported from treehole mosquito larvae of three Aedes subgenera in Australia, Fiji, and the United States. This fungus is now recorded for the first time from a mosquito of the genus Toxorhynchites, the large predatory larvae of which are of some importance in the naturalistic control of associated mosquito pests and vectors. A single parasitized larva of T. rutilus septentrionalis was collected from a magnolia treehole (previously used for A. triseriatus infection experiments) near West Lake, Louisiana, in September, 1971. Larval A. triseriatus and Orthopodomyia signifera were also present but were uninfected.

New answers to malaria problems through vector control

22a Lake, A. J., Henderson, E., Oakes, M., and Clark, M. W., Eocytes: A new ribosome structure indicates a kingdom with a close relationship to eukaryotes. Proc. hath. Acad. Sci. USA 81 (1984) 3786-3790. 23 Mah, R.A., Isolation and characterization of Methanococcus mazei. Curr. Microbiol. 3 (1980) 321 326. 24 Mah, R.A., and Kuhn, D.A., Transfer of the type species of the genus Methanococcus to the genus Methanosarcina, naming it Methanosarcina mazei (Barker 1936) comb. nov. et emend, and conservation of the genus Methanococcus (Approved lists 1980) with Methanococcus vannielii (Approved lists 1980) as type species. Int. J. syst. Bact. 34 (1984) 263-265. 25 Mah, R. A., and Kuhn, D. A., Rejection of the type species Methanosarcina methanica (Approved lists 1980), conservation of the genus Methanosarcina with Methanosarcina barkeri (Approved lists 1980) as type species and emendation of the genus Methanosarcina. Int. J. syst. Bact. 34 (1984) 266-267. 26 Mah, R.A., Ward, D.M., Baresi, L., and Glass, T. N., Biogenesis of methane. A. Rev. Microbiol. 31 (1977) 109-131. 27 Morii, H.N., Nishihara, N., and Koga, Y. Isolation, characterization and physiology of a new formate-assimiable methanogenic strain (A2) of Methanobrevibacter arboriphilus. Agric. biol. Chem., Tokyo 47 (1983) 2781-2790. 28 Patel, G. B., Roth, L. A., van den Berg, L., and Clark, D. S., Characterization of a strain ofMethanospirillurn hungatii. Can. J. Microbiol. 22 (1976) 1404-1410. 29 Pr6vot, A. R., Essai de classification des bact6ries m6thanog+nes. C.r. Acad. Sci., Paris, ser. D 277 (1973) 897 900. 30 Pr~vot, A.R., Biosynth~se bact~rienne du m6thane et des p6troles. Pour Fan 2000, in: Le M6thane, pp. 947. Maloine S.A. (1977). 31 Pr~vot, A.R., Nouvel essai de classification des bact6ries m6thanog6nes. C.r. Acad. Sci., Paris, set. D 290 (1980) 1253-1255. 32 Rivard, Ch.J., Henson, J.M., Thomas, M.V., and Smith, P.H., Isolation and characterization of Methanomicrobium paynteri sp. nov. a mesophilic methanogen isolated from marine sediment. Appl. envir. Microbiol. 46 (1983) 484-490. 33 Rivard, C.J., and Smith, P.H., Isolation and characterization of a thermophilic marine methanogenic bacterium, Methanogeniurn thermophilicum sp. nov. Int. J. syst. Bact. 32 (1982) 430-436. 34 Rose, Ch. S., and Pirt, S.J., Conversion of glucose to fatty acids and methane: Roles of two mycoplasmal agents. J. Bact. 147 (1981) 248-254. 35 Scherer, P. H., and Kneifel, H., Distribution ofpolyamines in methanogenic bacteria. J. Bact. 154 (1983) 1315-1322. 36 Schleifer, K.H., and Stackebrandt, E., Molecular systematics of prokaryotes. A. Rev. Microbiol. 37 (1983) 147-187. 37 Sowers, K.R., Baron, St. F., and Ferry, J. G., Methanosarc&a acetivorans sp. nov., an anaerobic methane-producing bacterium isolated from marine sediments. Appl. envir. Microbiol. 47 (1984) 971-978. 38 Sowers, K.R., and Ferry, J.G., Isolation and characterization of a methylotrophic marine methanogen, Methanococcoides rnethylutens gem nov. sp. nov. Appl. envir. Microbiol. 45 (1983) 684~690. 39 Stetter, K.O., Thomm, M., Winter, J., Wildgruber, G., Huber, H., Zillig, W., Jan6covic, D., K6nig, H., Palm, P., and Wunderl, S., Methanothermus fervidus, sp. nov., a novel extremely thermophilic methanogen isolated from an Iceland hot spring. Zbl. Bakt. Hyg. I.Abt. Orig. C2 (1981) 166 178. 40 Touzel, J.P., and Albagnac, G., Isolation and characterization of Methanococcus mazei strain MC 3. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 16 (1983) 241-245. 41 Wildgruber, G., Thomm, M., K6nig, H., Ober, K., Ricchiuto, Th., and Stetter, K. O., Methanoplanus limicola, a plate shaped methanogen representing a novel family, the Methanoplanaceae. Archs Microbiol. I32 (1982) 31-36. 42 Woese, C. R., Archaebacteria and cellular origins: An overview. Zbl. Bakt. Hyg., I.Abt. Orig. C3 (1982) 1-17. 43 Zabel, H.P., K6nig, H,, and Winter, J., Isolation and characterization of a new coccoid methanogen, Methanogenium tatii spec. nov. from a solfataric field on Mount Tatio. Archs Microbiol. 137 (1984) 308 315. 44 Zeikus, J.G., Metabolism of one-carbon compounds by chemotrophic anaerobes. Adv. Microb. Physiol. 24 (1983) 215-299. 45 Zhilina, T.N., Biotypes of Methanosarcina. Microbiology (USSR) 45 (1976) 481489. 46 Zhilina, T. N., Chudina, V. I., Ilarianov, S. A., and Bonch-Osmolovskaya, E.A., Thermophilic methane producing bacteria from Methanobacillus kuzneceovii methylotrophic associations. Microbiology (USSR) 52 (1983) 268-274. 47 Zhilina, T. N., and Zavarzin, G. A., Comparative cytology of Methanosarcinae and description of Methanosarcina vaeuolata sp. nova. Microbiology (USSR) 48 (1979) 279 285. 48 Zinder, St. H., and Mah, R.A., Isolation and characterization of a thermophilic strain of Methanosarcina unable to use H~CO2 formethanogenesis. Appl. envir. Microbiol. 38 (1979) 996 1008.

The Occurrence of Haemogregarina sp. in the Goosefish (Lophius americanus Valenciennes) from the Gulf of Maine

Abstract A blood smear from an immature goosefish (Lophius americanus Valenciennes) revealed an intraerythrocyte haematozoan infestation. The parasite resembles Haemogregarina platessae Lebailly, which has never been reported outside of the order Pleuronectiformes.

The Status of Biocontrol Investigations Concerning Simuliidae

Until very recently, knowledge of the feasibility of employing biocontrol against blackflies (Simuliidae) lagged far behind that concerning the prospects for mosquitoes (Culicidae). As recently an the overall review of biological control of vectors by Legner et al. (1974), the only field trial mentioned was an attempt in 1931 to use certain dragon-flies and a predacious chironomid against New Zealand blackflies. Apparently the results of this effort were not followed up. Jenkinss 1964 compilation included two reports of parasitoids (Braconidae, Scelionidae) from European and North American blackflies, yet other species of such entomophaga are known to be important biocontrol agents of certain economically significant arthropods. While neither predators nor parasitoids seem likely to be of practical significance as massproduced and field-liberated blackfly control agents, understanding of the role of such enemies in natural population limitation of Simuliidae (Service & Lyle, 1975) is clearly fundamental to the devising of selective integrated control methodologies that will minimize adverse effects to such already-operating agents.