76 N. S. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



trays are then closely examined for the Apanteles cocoons, the dead foliage being turned 

 over leaf by leaf and the cocoons removed by forceps, to glass vials. These latter are 

 placed in an ice chest to retard the development of the adult insects until a sufficient 

 number of cocoons have been gathered to form a colony for liberation in the field. So 

 far 67,500 Apanteles lacteicolor cocoons have been forwarded to Canada for colonization. 



Compsilura concinnata is a Tachinid fly resembling somewhat the common 

 housefly but slightly smaller. It differs from the housefly in that it is always a parasitic 

 insect and does not normally enter houses. The female deposits a newly hatched larva 

 beneath the skin of the young brown tail or gipsy caterpillar in the spring. In about 

 two weeks the larva kills its host and emerges as a maggot. It soon forms a puparium 

 about itself. Ten days later the adult fly emerges. Compsilura has two or three genera- 

 tions a year and is recorded as having about fifty different species of insects as hosts. 

 On account of the severe poisoning contracted by handling brown tail caterpillars Com- 

 psilura is reared from gipsy moth caterpillars. The latter are collected after being para- 

 sitised, in the field, brought into the laboratory and placed in trays. The caterpillars 

 are fed and the trays examined daily for the Compsilura puparia. These latter are re- 

 moved and placed in a glass vial in the ice chest. When making a shipment the 

 puparia are packed in a tight wooden box with damp moss. Thirty-one thousand 

 Compsilura puparia have been forwarded for colonization. These were obtained from 

 221,000 gipsy caterpillars collected in the field. 



Calosoma sycophanta is a brilliant beetle about an inch in length. It is predac- 

 eous in its habits and feeds readily on nearly all species of caterpillars. The beetles 

 live from two to four years, hibernating in the ground during the winter. The adult 

 emerges early in June, feeds for a few days and then the females deposit their eggs in 

 the ground. From three to ten days later the eggs hatch and the young larvae com- 

 mence to feedaattacking caterpillars or pupae regardless of size. The larvae moult three 

 times and then pass into the ground, pupate and hibernate as adult beetles during the 

 winter. The best method of colonuing these beetles is to liberate them in the adult 

 stage. The adults are collected wherever they can be found, usually the best collecting 

 grounds are in young oak woodlands where the gipsy caterpillars are abundant. The 

 beetles are shipped in colonies of one hundred, fifty males and fifty females. They are 

 placed in small wooden boxes, covered with wire screening and packed in damp moss. 

 So far 5,000 adult beetles have been forwarded to Canada. 



As soon as the colonies of parasites are received at the Entomological Laboratory 

 in Fredericton they are taken to various points in the field and liberated. These lib- 

 eration or colony points are selected on what might be called a strategic basis with a 

 view to establishing natural fortresses against the danger of invasion by the gipsy moth 

 and also to check the advance and to assist in preventing the further spread and in- 

 crease of the brown tail moth which has already made its presence felt on this side of the 

 border. Consequently, parasites and predators have been given their freedom to carry 

 on their work at points along the international boundary in Quebec and New Brunswick 

 and throughout the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. 



