BUREAU OP ENTOMOLOGY. 213 



resulted in preventing the spread of the insect to many distant points. 

 Sixteen thousand three hundred and seventy shipments of nursery 

 stock and forest products were inspected and 10,545 egg clusters of 

 the gipsy moth and 218 webs of the brown-tail moth were found 

 and destroyed. Fifteen thousand nuie hundred and forty-four ship- 

 ments of stone and quarry products were mspected and 387 egg 

 clusters of the gipsy moth destroyed. 



SiLVicuLTUEAL WORK. — The silvicultural work was continued 

 along the same lines as during the past year. More sample plats 

 were selected and thumed in order to secm-e additional data. In all 

 46 plats were under observation in Mame, New Hampshire, and 

 Massachusetts. This practically completes the number of plats to 

 be selected, and the securing of data and tabulation of results are 

 under way. 



Experimental work. — The experimental work in the laboratory 

 and field on the feeding habits of the gipsy moth was practically 

 completed, with the exception of a small amount of work which is 

 being carried on to determine the importance of the gipsy moth as a 

 cranberry pest. Studies of the increase of the gipsy moth under 

 field conditions and of the relation of disease and parasites to its 

 increase were continued, and work was done on secondary insects 

 which attack trees that are weakened as the result of gipsy moth 

 and brown-tail moth defoliations. 



Parasite and disease work. — Work on the introduced parasites 

 and natural enemies of the gipsy moth and brown-tail moth and on the 

 wilt disease were continued. More specimens of imported parasites 

 were reared or collected and colonized during the past year than ever 

 before. In the fall of 1914 over 2,000;000 specimens of Scliedius 

 Tcuvanae were liberated in 500 colonies, which were distributed in 

 110 infested towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode 

 Island. The other egg parasite of the gipsy moth, Anastatus 

 hifasciatus, was collected in large numbers and nearly 10,000,000 

 specimens were liberated in 91 towns in Maine, New Hampshire, and 

 Massachusetts during the spring of 1915. Parasitism in the field 

 by the latter insect has frequently amounted to 30 per cent. Apanteles 

 lacteicolor, which attacks not only the small caterpillars of the brown- 

 tail moth but those of the gipsy moth as well, has been recovered in 

 fair numbers this year. Meteorus versicolor, another parasite of the 

 browm-tail moth caterpillars, was found more abundant than usual 

 during the season, and Apanteles melanoscelis, which passes through 

 two broods on gipsy-moth caterpillars, has increased and is doing 

 effective work in the small area where it has been colonized. Lim- 

 nerium disparis is established but has not increased to any great 

 extent. The tachinid fly Compsilura concinnata, which attacks a 

 large number of native caterpillars as well as those of the gipsy moth 

 and bro\\Ti-tail moth, was found in fair numbers during the year, and 

 Zygohothria nidicola, an enemy of the latter species, was found in 

 great numbers. The calosoma beetle Calosoma sycoplmnta was 

 lound abundantly, particularly in territory where it was first liberated. 

 This insect contmues to spread and is destroying large niunbers of 

 gipsy-moth caterpillars and pupae. 



