VEGETABLE PARASITES. 405 



great numbers of the caterpillars in infested brushlands. 

 Stomach examinations of three toads, taken in such a place, 

 June 6, 1895, showed them to contain respectively seven, 

 fifteen and sixty-live gypsy moth caterpillars, or remains of 

 the same. 



Mr. Samuel Henshaw pul)lished a report upon the gyps}^ 

 moth in Massachusetts, in Bulletin No. 26, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, page 

 75, in which he gives the following list of invertebrates that 

 destroy the larvte of the gypsy moth : Cicindela 6-guttata, 

 Cam/ponotus liercuJaneus, Sinea diadema, and undetermined 

 Sf/rjjhus, and ChrT/sopa, Lithohius forficatus ; also the fol- 

 lowing spiders : JE])eira strix, Steatoda horealis, Lycosa sp., 

 Drassus sp,, Agalena ncevia, Phidippus galathea (mi/sta- 

 ceus), EpihJemum scenicum, 3Iarptusa familiaris and 

 TJiomixus sp. 



Mr. Henshaw's letter of sulmiittal is dated "Cambridge, 

 Mass., Dec. 7, 1891,'' and therefore his observations were 

 probably made during the summer of 1891. 



A^EGETABLE PARASITES. 



A very careful watch has been kept for any indication of 

 vegetable parasites, either fungi or microbes, and nothing 

 has thus far been discovered. We consulted with Drs. 

 Farlow and Thaxter of Harvard University, ])oth eminent 

 authorities on the subject, and, after describing to them the 

 habits of the insect, neither of these gentlemen gave us en- 

 couragement that vegetable parasites would prove to be a 

 very important factor in the destruction of the gypsy moth ; 

 yet, in wet seasons, where the caterpillars were very abun- 

 dant, the parasitic fungi, if any could be found to attack this 

 species, might prove more or less serviceable. 



The caterpillars of the nun moth {Lymantria monacha)^ 

 in Europe, when very abundant, are often attacked by an 

 epidemic or contagious disease known as the top or head 

 sickness (Wipfelkrankheit), a very good account of which 

 has been given l)y AVachtl and Kornauth in their " Beitrage 

 zur Kenntniss der Morphologic, etc., der Xonne," page 17. 

 Drs. Tangl, Scheuerlen, Hofmann, Tubeuf and Jiiger have 



