28 RESULTS FROM GIPSY MOTH PARASITE LABORATORY. 



fully examined and placed into one of two separate lots, namely, the 

 live and active, or the dead, abnormal, and inactive. A few small 

 collections were also made of active prepupal larvae which were 

 kept separate froni the other lots. All of these lots were placed 

 in small pasteboard boxes about 8 by 5 by 4 inches, with tio;ht covers, 

 and were examined almost daily for either maggots or puparia of 

 Sarcophagidse, or parasites, and the moths as they issued from the 

 pupse were removed and killed. The small number of pup«> from 

 which no moths issued was dissected for parasites at the close of the 

 experiments. Three thousand two hundred and fifty-seven pupae and 

 prepupal larva? were collected for the experiments, 300 of which were 

 active prepupal larvae, 591 were dead and inactive pupae, and the re- 

 maining 2,366 were active pupae. No sarcophagids were reared from 

 the lots of active pupae and active prepupal larvae, but 2 puparia of 

 the tachinid parasite Coinpsilura concinnata Meig. developed from 

 one of the lots of the active pupae and 14 were secured from the prepu- 

 pal larvae. This parasite of the gipsy moth and brown-tail moth was 

 introduced from Europe and liberated in eastern Massachusetts. It 

 has become so well established here, according to the best authorities 

 and records, that it is now distributed over more than 200 square 

 miles of the infested territory. 



From the dead and inactive pupae, as might have been expected, 

 sarcophagids were obtained, as well as other species which work as 

 scavengers or parasites. This material yielded 4 third-stage maggots 

 and 1 second-stage (dead) maggot of the Sarcophagidfe ; 4 puparia 

 and 1 third-stage maggot (dead) of Compsilura concinnata; 1 Exorista 

 hlanda O. S. ; 2 third-stage maggots and 1 second-stage tachinid 

 maggot of an unknown species; 14 Monad ontomerus adults and 2 

 pupae of the same; 8 pupae of GoMrax anchora Loew ( ?) ; and 1 adult 

 and 4 pupae of Theronia and 5 Dihrachys (dead) in 1 gipsy moth 

 pupa. A special lot of 5 prepupal larvae was collected, and on dis- 

 section 2 proved to be alive, 2 dead, and 1 had pupated while being 

 brought in from the field. In one of the live prepupals a second-stage 

 maggot of Compsilura concinnata was obtained, while the other was 

 not parasitized. One of the dead prepupals produced 3 third-stage 

 maggots of the Sarcophagidae, while the other, as well as the freshly 

 formed pupa, contained no parasites. 



The above experiments not only uphold, but seem rather to 

 strengthen the old belief that the sarcophagids are simply scavengers. 

 Another point of interest in this line of investigation is that there are 

 sometimes found in a single pupa more than one parasite, which often 

 belong not onl}^ to entirel}^ distinct and separate genera, but even to 

 entirely distinct and separate families. This point was well illus- 

 trated in making one of the collections, when the posterior end of a 



