INJURIES IX THE OLD WORLD. 283 



grass, and, coming to a field of grain in their march, they 

 destroyed that also. In 1880, they appeared in force in the 

 forests of the provinces of Simbeersk and Kazan. 



In a letter from Professor Henry of the School of For- 

 estry, Nancy, France, dated July 27, 1895, he says : '^Lqjans 

 disjpar (the gypsy moth) is well known to French foresters. 

 This caterpillar is a plague to fruit trees, oaks, chestnuts, 

 lindens, elms, poplars and other trees, on all of which it 

 thrives. In 1868, more than 60 hectares (1481 acres) of oak 

 woods were entirely stripped by it. It was so common in 

 1880, ®n the sides of Mt. Ventoux near Avignon, that the 

 legions of caterpillars covered the ground and entirely de- 

 stroyed vegetation. In Savoy it made an invasion in 1887 

 upon the chestnuts and fruit trees. There is not a year 

 passes, comparatively speaking, in which the caterpillars do 

 not show themselves in our territory, if not in one place 

 then in another." In a letter from Dr. J. Ritzema-Boz, from 

 Amsterdam, Sept. 3, 1895, he writes that this insect is com- 

 mon in Holland and also in all western Europe, but the 

 ravages of the caterpillar are very much more common in 

 the eastern parts of Europe. In Holland the ravages of the 

 gypsy moth are very rare indeed. In 1848, it stripped the 

 leaves from the oak ( Quercus ^^edunculata) over 50 hectares 

 (123^'^g acres) near Lutphen in the Dutch province of Gelder- 

 land, and then attacked the other trees. In 1887 it was very 

 aliundant on oak near Wymegen in the province of Gelder- 

 land. In 1880 these caterpillars destroyed the leaves on a 

 large number of hectares of oaks near Veenendeal in the 

 province of Utrecht. 



In a letter from N. Nasonov, of the University Museum of 

 Zoology, in Warsaw, Poland, dated Aug. 7, 1895, he writes 

 that he had the opportunity of knowing personally of an 

 immense number of the caterpillars of the gypsy moth in 

 the orchards of the government of Warsaw during the years 

 1891 and 1892, and also on the deciduous trees in the 

 government of Moscow in 1894. In 1892, the leaves of 

 the fruit trees in Warsaw were eaten by these caterpillars 

 to such an extent that they bore no fruit. According to 

 the information received from the central Russian govern- 

 ment, the caterpillars of the gypsy moth have this summer 



