454 



angewandte Entomologie." He also took the first steps to found in 

 Munich a Research Institute for combating Animal Pests and a sum of 

 £25,000 has been contributed towards the cost by private individuals 

 and by a business corporation. This Institute will investigate insects 

 injurious to crops, stored products, man and animals and will 

 endeavour to ascertain the best means of combating them, special 

 attention being devoted to insecticides. Prof. Escherich regards the 

 diffusion of knowledge relating to pests as the best method of promoting 

 co-operation in the apphcation of preventive and remedial measures 

 and more effective than attempting to deal with the matter by means 

 of legislation. The teachers at the agricultural winter schools and the 

 travelling instructors should be those chiefly responsible for this side 

 of the work. Insect pest inspectors would form the link between the 

 research institute and the government on one side and the pubhc on the 

 other, and would be charged wdth the duty of carrying out demon- 

 strations in remedial measures. In order to ensure that the 

 Government's policy should be intelligent, the ministry concerned 

 should have an expert consultant. 



Prof. Escherich's initiative has found a response not only in Germany 

 but also in German Austria, and Prof. Seitner of Vienna has suggested 

 the formation of a central institute staffed with zoologists and other 

 specialists, the Plant Protection Station in Vienna and the Zoological 

 Department of the Forestry Experiment Institute at Mariabrunn, 

 which deal with applied entomology, being incapable of coping with 

 this additional work. Even if such a central institute is not provided, 

 Prof. Seitner considers temporary observation stations to be very 

 necessary, either in threatened areas or in their immediate vicinity. 

 The appointment of state entomologists, chosen among those graduates 

 of agricultural high schools who show a special leaning towards 

 entomology, is necessary. Their duties would include inter alia the 

 making of reports to the central institute and the directing of remedial 

 measures. The education of young entomologists by means of tours 

 of instruction at the expense of the State and a system of exchanges 

 among entomologists are also desirable. 



Krausse (A.). Beobachtungen an Dasychira pidibunda, L., gelegentlich 

 des Eberswalder Frasses 1917. [Observations on D. pudibimda 

 during the Eberswald Outbreak in 1917.] — Zeitschr. Forst- u. 

 Jagdwesen, Berlin, li, no 5, May 1919, pp. 265-272, 9 figs. 



During 1915 and 1916 there was only a slight infestation at'Ebers- 

 w'alde of Dasychira pudibunda, L. The severe outbreak of 1917 was 

 therefore unexpected and has not been explained. All the caterpillars 

 examined were infected with a polyhedral disease. Cases of severe 

 urtication were recorded, and in some localities the collection of resin 

 had to be interrupted owing to the number of caterpillars that dropped 

 on the workers and their utensils. Early in September the beeches 

 in the forest near Eberswalde were found to be badly defoliated. 

 The caterpillars were also swarming on pine trees, but did not feed on 

 the needles. Few Ichneumonid parasites w^ere seen, but the Carabid 

 beetles, Calosoma sycopJianfa and Carabus glabratus, preyed on the 

 caterpillars to a considerable extent. No birds were observed to attack 

 them. 



