BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 515 



The writer visited Europe in May and June, 1910; visited agents 

 and officials in Ital}' and France, and, through the courtesy of the 

 Spanish and Portuguese governments, was able to start a new official 

 service in each of those countries for the collection and sending of 

 parasitized gipsy moth larva? to the United States. In Italy Prof. 

 F. Silvestri, of the Royal Agricultural College at Portici, and Dr. 

 Antonio Berlese, director of the Royal Agricultural Entomological 

 Station at Florence, insisted on the desire to be of service to the 

 United States in this direction and declined all financial aid. In 

 Spain Prof. L. Navarro, of the Phytopathological Station at Madrid, 

 volunteered his services under the same conditions, wnth the ap- 

 proval of the minister of agriculture. In Portugal, Prof. A. F. de 

 Seabra, of the Phytopathological Station at Lisbon, also volunteered 

 his services with the permission of Senhor Alfredo Carlos Le Cocq, 

 director of agriculture. In France arrangements were made with 

 a paid agent stationed in the south of France, and the same arrange- 

 ments as in. previous years were made with paid agents in Germany 

 and Switzerland. The distributing agency at Hamburg was con- 

 tinued, and a new distributing agency was started at Havre on 

 account of its convenient proximity to the American Line steamers 

 starting from Southampton. 



Sendings from Japan were continued in the same manner as dur- 

 ing the previous year. The minister of agriculture for Japan, at 

 the request of the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States, 

 again designated Prof. S. I. Kuwana, of the Imperial Agricultural 

 Experiment Station at Tokyo, to be its official representative in the 

 work to be carried on during the spring and summer of 1910. Pro- 

 fessor Kuwana continued his most valuable sendings. 



The thanks of the United States Government and of the govern- 

 ments of the States involved are due in high measure to the officials 

 of Italy, Russia, France, Spain, Portugal, and Japan who have 

 assisted in this work. All of them have been named at one time or 

 another in this series of reports. 



The work of the Gipsy Moth Parasite Laboratory continued nnin- 

 terruj^tcdly during the year, consisting of — 



(a) Importation of parasites and predatory enemies from abroad, 

 as indicated above. 



(h) Rearing those parasites and predatory (Miemios in tlio labora- 

 tory, and wliorever possible breeding them in numbers from imported 

 parent stock. 



(c) Colonization ir the field of the parasites thus obtained. 



(d) Field work to determine their progress in America. 



(e) Investigations into their biological and general relations. 



(/) Field and laboratory investigations into the parasites of native 

 insects most nearly related to the imported pests either in habit or 

 in natural affinity, with especial reference to the probaI)lc effect which 

 the introduction of tlie foreign parasites will have upon the economy 

 of the native parasites and of their hosts. 



Larger quantities of the raw material from which the parasites 

 have been reared have boon received than during any other year. This 

 has consisted, as heretofoie, of eggs, winter nests, caterpillars, and 

 pupae of the brown-tail moth from Europe, and of eggs, caterpillars, 

 and pupa? of the gipsy moth from Europe and Japan, large numbers 

 of adult predatory beetles, and thousands of parasite cocoons and 



