53 



plaints has come to the experiment station during the early spring- in 

 regard to this insect, particularly from the southern, central, and 

 southwestern sections of the State; but a little later in the season, 

 probably in June, the weather became wet, and, probably owing to the 

 increase of the fungus disease, the damage decreased to a great extent. 

 He asl4:ed if the disappearance of the squash l)ug had been quite gen- 

 eral the present year. He thought that probably many entomologists 

 in the northeastern United States had had a good many reports of its 

 extreme destructiveness, and he had been much puzzled over the com- 

 plete disappearance of the insect. 



Mr. Felt stated in reference to the willow curcalio that he had 

 located it last summer at a point in Chautauqua County, where it 

 could hardly have been carried on stock. In reference to the squash 

 bug, it had not lieen quite so bad in New York state the present season 

 as last year. 



Mr. Fernald stated that the squash bug had not been particularly 

 prevalent in Massachusetts the present ,year, while it had been 

 unusually so in 1901. He was, therefore, of the opinion that the tes- 

 timony from Massachusetts would go to sustain Mr. Weed's estimate 

 for New Hampshire. He referred to an interesting German publica- 

 tion by Bachmetjew on the "Temperature relations of insects," which 

 had appeared last summer, which had a bearing on the question of the 

 relative abundance of insects during different years. He considered 

 this a very important paper as relating to the so-called "critical 

 point," and thought the entomologists of the northern United States 

 would do well to test his conclusions. 



Mr. Weed remarked that the lack of precise knowledge concerning 

 fluctuations in the abundance of insects had led him to state that he 

 considered this one of the most important economic su])jects to be con- 

 sidered at present. These fluctuations have generall}^ been attrilmted 

 to weather or natural enemies, and he considered that we knew very 

 little in regard to the precise role which natural enemies play in regard 

 to our injurious insects. This was strongly brought out by a series 

 of observations by Mr. Fiske and described in a paper which he stated 

 would be published shortly. In this paper Mr. Fiske had detailed 

 his observations on the parasites and hyperparasites of the American 

 tent caterpillar for a period of several years, and his conclusions were, 

 as he remem])ered the matter, that the parasites had very little to do 

 with the fluctuations of the American tent caterpillar. Ver}" often 

 these fluctuations could be traced to the weather, but on the whole 

 very little was known as to the exact cause which entered into these 

 variations. He thought it safe to conclude that the disappearance of 

 the tent caterpillar two years ago was due to the extraordinary weather 

 conditions just after the hatching of the young larvie, but he thought 

 it important that definite observations should be made along this line 

 to determine as accurately as possible the real factoi-s concerned. 



