REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 191 1 45 



preparation of a portion of the empty pupal case shows the stout, 

 barbed hairs and on the surface of the chitin irregularly placed, 

 oval areas apparently due to a slight increase in pigmentation or 

 chitinization (plate 9, figure 7). 



The male and female moths differ widely. The former is a 

 slender, oval, brown, black marked insect with feathery antennae 

 and a wing spread of about one and one-half inches. It flies in 

 the late afternoon and early evening. The female is much heavier 

 and lighter colored. She has a wing spread of about two inches, 

 is Avhite or buff white and with more or less distinct, black mark- 

 ings, the abdomen being tipped with black. 



Distribution in America. The gipsy moth is now well estab- 

 lished in five of the New England states. Aside from the large 

 colony found two years ago at Wallingford, Conn., and two 

 small ones in the Berkshires, it is not known to occur west of the 

 Connecticut river. Both Connecticut and Massachusetts have 

 undertaken to exterminate these outlying colonies, and it is to be 

 hoped that the gipsy moth may be kept for a long series of years 

 east of the Connecticut river. This stream forms a natural bar- 

 rier, the absence of thick forests and the large, open valley render- 

 ing it comparatively easy to check the progress of this enemy. 



Condition of infested territory. There is no better way of 

 comprehending what infestation by the gipsy moth or the brown- 

 tail moth means than by a study of the conditions in the 

 infested territory. It was our pleasure, in company with parties 

 in charge of Government, State and private work against both 

 the gipsy and brown-tail moth, to study the problem over a wide 

 section of country. We have also seen representative infested 

 areas almost annually for over twenty years and, as a conse- 

 quence, can make personal comparisons between the present and 

 earlier status. Generally speaking, there has been much prog- 

 ress in controlling the insects in the immediate vicinity of 

 Boston, in the towns and cities where the pests have been estab- 

 lished for a number of years. The residential areas as a whole 

 are in excellent condition and, to the casual observer, appear 

 free from any very destructive insect pest. This relatively 

 desirable change has been brought about only by enormous ex- 

 penditures. It has been recently estimated that the cost of con- 

 trol work in Massachusetts and portions of other New England 

 states amounts to upwards of a million dollars a year. This 

 makes no allowance for the actual damage inflicted. Such ex- 



