ENTOMOLOC4Y. 577 



mar counties. Tho g3'p.sy moth was roported from Karlskrono in 1840 

 and even as late as 1891 was considered a rare insect in that region. 

 The area which was infested during- the out})reak under discussion 

 amounted to about 100 sq. kilometers. The food plants which the insect 

 seemed to prefer were oak, poplar, willow, birch, apple, peach, beam 

 tree, spruce, blueberr}', clover, and grasses. The infested country was 

 of a rough nature and contained many large stone piles and stone walls, 

 in which the eggs were laid. 



A government appropriation was secured and work was begun in the 

 spring in the destruction of the eggs. The egg masses were treated 

 for this purpose with black varnish, ^ kg. of this substance being suffi- 

 cient to treat 200 egg masses. In all, 2,025 kg. of black varnish and 660 

 kg. of Raupenleim were employed in the spring work. The total num- 

 ber of eggs destroyed ])y these methods was estimated at 377,500,000. 

 The spring work extended from April 11 to May 13, and during this 

 time 7,941 stone piles and 36,048 meters of stone wall were examined. 

 The number of men employed varied from 88 to 115, and the total num- 

 ber of days' work in the spring operations was 1,839. The first gypsy 

 moth larvffi hatched out during the last days of April while the tem- 

 perature varied from zero to 18° C. In general, the larvpe were found 

 to hatch during the time between the first appearance of green and the 

 development of the leaves. During the summer the infested area was 

 carefully examined, the work extending from Jul}' 10 to July 21. 

 Stone walls which were badly infested with eggs were surrounded 

 with a line of narrow boards which had been smeared with Kaupenleim 

 in order to prevent the escape of the larvte. The total number of 

 da^'s' work in the spring and summer operations was 2,290 and the 

 total expense was about $925. 



Among the natural enemies of this insect, the author mentions star- 

 lings, cuckoos, crows, magpies, and a number of parasitic Hymenoptera 

 and Diptera. The author's observations upon the life history of the 

 gypsy moth ma}^ be summarized as follows: The eggs which have sur- 

 vived the winter hatch at about the time of the first vegetative devel- 

 opment. The number of eggs in 20 egg niasses which were carefully 

 counted varied from 172 to 682, with an average of 339. The larvae 

 undergo 4 distinct developmental stages. The larval period varies from 

 9 to 10 weeks and the pupal stage from 12 to 14 days. The males appear 

 during the last week in July and the females during the first week in 

 August. The deposition of the eggs begins in from 2 to 6 hours after 

 fertilization and occupies from 7 to 12 days. 



A new method of combating the gypsy moth, Rorig {ArJj. K. 

 Gesundheitsamte, Biol. Aht., 1 {1900), No. 2, pp. 255-260, figs. 2).— 

 The author, after inspection of the work of the gypsv moth commis- 

 sion in Massachusetts in fighting this insect, came to the conclusion 

 that the methods adopted there did not give hope of ultimate success. 



