FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



Russia, Heller in Germany, F. Rebel in Austria, and Joseph Jab- 

 lonowski in Hungary, advised me and helped me no end, and, 

 largely on their advice, I established in several countries a 

 regular service through which for years parasitized Gipsy Moths 

 and Brown-tail Moths in their early stages were sent to Massa- 

 chusetts, 



As a matter of fact, before starting on this work, I knew more 

 about the parasites that had been recorded in Europe as attacking 

 both the Gipsy Moth and the Brown-tail Moth than any of my 

 European colleagues. That, of course, was because for twenty 

 years or more I had been hard at work cataloguing the European 

 publications. Nevertheless, each man of those I have mentioned 

 knew pretty well the principal enemies of these destructive pests 

 as they occurred in his own country, and some of them were able 

 at once to put me in touch with collectors who began immediately 

 to help us out. 



For example, the people at the great Museum in Vienna told 

 me about a young man named Fritz Wagner. I looked Fritz up, 

 and went out on an expedition with him. We found in one of the 

 Vienna suburbs some street shade trees (I think they were what 

 we call locusts — Robinia pseudacacia — in the United States) that 

 had been partially defoliated by the Gipsy Moth, and on the 

 bark of these trees there were many little white cocoons of an 

 efficient and important parasite. Then we went on out to the 

 famous Napoleonic battlefield of Wagram, and there we found 

 some poplar trees whose trunks were fairly speckled with these 

 white cocoons. So Fritz Wagner knew what we wanted, and 

 for some years sent to Boston large numbers of boxes full of these 

 parasite cocoons and of Gipsy Moth caterpillars that had been 

 stung. 



After this I went on to Budapest. The people at the Hungarian 

 National Museum took a courteous interest in my mission, but 



[94] 



