1907.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 73. 25 



tofore recognized in combating other insects injurious to agri- 

 culture and forests. It attacks the wide range of fruit trees, 

 shade trees, forest trees and ornamental shrubs which may be 

 grown in the temperate zone. Further than this, from the 

 known distribution of the moth, occurring as it does throughout 

 middle and southern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa, 

 it is apparent to the entomologist that under favorable circum- 

 stances it might establish itself throughout the entire United 

 States. It occurs from Stockholm on the north to Algiers on the 

 south, from England on the west across the Altai Mountains to 

 China and Japan on the east, while Neitner records specimens 

 which were taken in Ceylon. It is a fair statement that this 

 dangerous pest of fruit trees will flourish wherever the apple 

 and pear can be grown ; and the same is also true of the brown- 

 tail moth. It therefore naturally follows that wherever either 

 the gypsy or the brown-tail moth may find lodgment within the 

 United States it may there find food on which to thrive and 

 develop, and in comparatively few years increase into a colony 

 of notable size. 



During the past year, with the approval of His Excellency 

 the Governor, there have been organized a few small scouting 

 gangs for the careful inspection of localities in which it was 

 thought the gypsy moth might occur; and unfortunately the re- 

 sults of the inspections so made to date have revealed the presence 

 of the moth in a number of towns outside the infested district 

 known in 1905. All told, 25 of the towns known to be infested 

 in 1905 have been inspected by these gangs with the assistance 

 of the local authorities, and in addition 16 municipalities lying 

 outside the border of the 1905 infested district have been ex- 

 amined and found infested, viz. : Lowell, Dracut, Tyngsborough, 

 Westford, Groton, Littleton, Ayer, Harvard, Boxborough, West- 

 borough, Holliston, Millis, Easton, Eaynham, Sandwich and 

 Orleans. The work of scouting is still in progress, and will no 

 doubt result in adding to the known infested district. As a 

 matter of fact, the scouting of outside territory is a matter 

 which will, under present or probable appropriations, require 

 several years for its completion ; and no doubt during the coming 

 year more towns will be added to the list of those known to be 



