16 Till-: BROWN-TAIL MOTH. 



time a real invasion takes place, or until the frightful dam- 

 age arouses their attention. Then the public clamor warns 

 the local authorities. It disturbs them, and the govern- 

 ment sends savants to observe the si)read of the phenomenon, 

 and at the same time to invent a remedy for this neglected 

 evil. But the savants, arriving unfortunatelv in the midst 

 of a bona fide outbreak, do nothinjr : Wn- there is nothinir to 

 do, and the insignificant remedies attempted are too late, or 

 amount to nothing. It is not during the thne of severe epi- 

 demics to combat this i)est, it is by an application of prac- 

 tical methods, established and followed carefully and patiently 

 during many years."' Writing in 1881, Altum, " Forst- 

 zoologie,'" Vol. 3, p. lOl!, states that the nests of the moth 

 were very abundant in the vicinity of Eberswald " in 1874- 

 75, on isolated fruit trees, chieily pear, the latter being 

 thickly infested. . . . On older fruit trees there were as 

 many naked branches as there were nests." In northern 

 Germany "they are the chiei" plague of young oak forests, 

 oak plantations, and particularly the lower-growing oaks." 

 In Brehm's " Tierleben," Vol. 1), 1802, Taschenberg has 

 written: "These caterpillars are in the fii'st rank of those 

 which affect our fruit trees, and not unfrequently through 

 enormous outbreaks is shown the character of the inexcus- 

 able neii:lect of the orchardist who during the winter or 

 early spring could so readil}' cut off and burn the easily 

 found caterpillar nests." 



Fischer, " Schlich's Manual," Vol. 4, 1.S95, states that 

 " ill the Berlin Zoological Garden they [the cateri)illars] 

 destroy the foliage almost every year."' With reference to 

 destro3^ing the cater})illars he says: " Gare must be taken 

 to protect the hands against the hairs, which cause inflam- 

 mation." This damage at Berlin is also mentioned by an 

 anonymous writer in " (iartentlora," \). .'>(I0, 181)7, who says 

 that the caterpillars " this spring . . . have entirely stripju'd 

 the oaks and many bushes in the Zocilogical Garden as well 

 as in the Botanical Garden." These references, taken from 

 the vast mass of foreign writings on the brown-tail moth, 

 show how well the insect is known, and what a formidable 

 j)est it is at home. 



