no AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Supplies for field work 3-515 7° 



Supplies for laboratory, including building 550 00 



Printing and binding 55 37 



Insurance, laboratory building and supplies 29 25 



Total expenditures $29,907 84 



Balance unexpended 92 16 



INTRODUCTION OF PAIL\SITES. 



In Massachusetts the results with different parasites were so 

 encouraging that after eight years of field work it was deemed 

 most practical to attempt colonization of parasites to comple- 

 ment the field work in Maine, and last March a laboratory for 

 breeding parasites and for making observations on their work 

 was established in Portland at 1.258 Forest avenue. A build- 

 ing 12x18 was built that accommodates the use of fifty trays 

 4 feet long, 21-2 feet wide and 5 inches deep. Space is also 

 afforded in the building for microscopic dissection and for 

 keeping accurate notes on development and dispersion of the 

 insects worked with. In the work at the laboratory the pre- 

 daceous and parasitic enemies of the gypsy and brown-tail 

 moths, used to breed, and liberate in this state, have been se- 

 lected with great care as to their economic importance. 



The undertaking was begun only after a careful study of 

 the relative value of the different parasites dealt with at the 

 United States laboratory and relying on the advice of Prof. A. F. 

 Burgess in charge of the government laboratory at Melrose. 

 Mass.. and of the experts connected with same. The work of 

 breeding and liberating thus far has been with the Apanteles 

 lacteicolor and Meteorus versicolor as enemies of the brown- 

 tail moth, Compsilura concinnata. parasitic on both the gypsy 

 and brown-tail moth and the Calosoma sycophanta beetle, also 

 predatory to both insects. 



Without taking up the life history of any of the parasites i': 

 might be interesting to learn of the methods used in handling 

 the Apanteles. In European countries where this insect is well 

 established it is possible to collect the cocoons in large quanti- 

 ties from the field and transport them to other locaHties. But at 

 the Maine laboratory the following method of development 

 was adopted. 



