REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1906 47 
cooperation between local authorities and State officials in Massa- 
chusetts, and as a consequence the numbers of both pests have been 
largely reduced, in spite of the fact that they were exceedingly 
abundant the preceding summer. Some extended woodland tracts 
were completely defoliated, and the control of the gipsy moth in 
such situations is still a grave problem. The federal government 
is cooperating with the state of Massachusetts in an effort to 
prevent the further spread of the insect as well as in studying its 
natural enemies. It is proposed to keep all trees near highways 
as free from these insects as possible, in order to prevent their 
being carried into new territory by users of the highways. This 
alone should reduce very largely the danger of the gipsy moth 
becoming established in other sections. 
A serious effort has been made to secure natural enemies. Dr 
L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, United States 
Department of Agriculture, has an extensive acquaintance with 
foreign entomologists, and this enabled him to secure the services 
of a number of skilled specialists for the collection and shipment 
to this country, of large numbers of parasites of both the gipsy 
and brown tail moths. Shipments were sent directly to Sup’t 
A. H. Kirkland and installed in the parasitic laboratory 
at Saugus. The insects were carefully bred out, the dangerous 
secondary hyperparasites destroyed and the beneficial forms reared 
in cages, and those abundant established under favorable conditions 
in the open. The results obtained during the season of 1906 have 
been very successful, in that several important natural enemies 
have completed their life cycle in this country and it now only 
remains to ascertain whether they can stand the rigors of the New 
England winter and multiply sufficiently to be of material service 
in checking these two pests. The outlook for this line of work is 
certainly very encouraging, and so far as controlling these insects 
in woodlands is concerned, it appears to be the most practical way 
of attaining this much desired end. 
Oriental slug caterpillar (Cnidocampa flavescens 
Walk.). This slug caterpillar was discovered in the vicinity of 
Boston at Dorchester, Mass. in 1905 and careful examination 
showed that it had become established over a territory about 2 
miles long and 14 miles in breadth. It appears to be a species 
that can sustain itself readily in this latitude, though, as our native 
slug caterpillars rarely become abundant enough to cause any ma- 
terial injury, it is hoped that the same may be the case with this 
