1908 ' ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 123 



In the same way great advance lias been made in the rearing of the 

 Tachinid parasites, under the charge of Mr. C. H. T. Townsend who has 

 devised methods and made observations that have greatly added to our 

 knowledge of the biology of these insects and have resulted in the accumula- 

 tion of a store of information of the greatest practical value not only in 

 the prosecution of the present undertaking but in any problem of parasitic 

 introduction or control that may arise later. Extraordinary and almost 

 revolutionary discoveries have been made in the life histories of certain 

 of these flies, and without this knowledge the greatest success in handling 

 them practically could not have been reached. 



Similarly Mr. A. F. Burgess, in charge of the Coleoptera, has succeeded 

 in a very perfect way in rearing and liberating the important European 

 predatory beetle Calosoma sycophanta, as well as some other insects of the 

 same family. Altogether during the fiscal year the following material has 

 been imported : 



Brown-tail egg-masses, about 26,000. 



Hibernating nests of the brown-tail from 50,000 to 60,000. 



Larvae and pupae of the brown-tail, about 178,000. 



Gipsy moth egg-masses, 7 boxes, each containing very many masses. 



Gipsy moth larvae and pupae, about 161,000. 



Gipsy moth larvae from Japan, 8 large boxes containing several thousand 

 larvse and parasitic cocoons. 



Predatory beetles, 2,892. 



It will be noticed that only about half as many of the hibernating nests 

 of the brown-tail were imported during this fiscal year as during last, but 

 the smaller number is offset by the larger numbers of larvae, pupae and egg- 

 masses, so that the gross amount received is about the same as that of the 

 previous year. The material received from Japan listed above came in 

 before the 1st July, but in all there have been received about 40 boxes, 

 nearly all of large size. From one shipment of the cocoons between forty- 

 thousand and fifty-thousand adults of one of the most important parasites 

 of the genus Glyptapanteles were reared and were liberated directly in the 

 open. 



The colonization work has been going on rapidly during the summer of 

 1908, and of the species colonized the following have been the most numer- 

 ous : 



Pteromalus from the brown-tail moth nests, 114,000. 



Trichogramma from the brown-tail moth eggs, 11,600. 



Telenomus from brown-tail eggs, 4,560. 



Apanteles of the brown-tail, 12,875. 



Japanese Glyptapanteles, 45.000. 



Meteorus from brown-tail, 1,080. 



Pimpla from brown-tail pupae, 2,051. 



"Unclassified Tachinids, 4,177. 



Named Tachinids, 1,600. 



Calosoma sycophanta, adults and larvae, 978. 



Thus making nearly 200,000 of the most active enemies of the gipsy 

 moth and the brown-tail moth liberated under the most favourable condi- 

 tions during the year. 



The result of the colonization work of previous years has not become 

 very evident. It is altogether likely that the species introduced have found 

 conditions favourable to their increase and that at the present time they 

 exist in considerable numbers. The area, however, is so extensive as to 

 make their occurrence in ordinary collections a matter of chance rather than 



