A DANGEROUS INSECT PEST IN MEDFORD. 



From Special Bulletin FIatch Experiment Station, November, 

 1889, C. H. Fernald. 



The Gypsy Moth (Ocneria clLspar L.). 



" On the 27tb of last June, during my absence in Europe, 

 several caterpillars were received at the Station, from Hon. 

 William li. Sessions, secretary of the Board of Agriculture, 

 with the request for information as to what they were and 

 the best methods of destroying them. These caterpillars 

 were brought into the secretary's office by Mr. John Stetson 

 of Medford, Mass , who stated that they were very destruc- 

 tive in that town, eating the leaves of fruit and shade trees. 

 Mrs. Fernald, who had charge of the entomological work 

 during my absence, determined the insect to be the gypsy 

 moth {Ocneria dlapar Linn.) of Europe, but as the moths 

 were emerging and laying their eggs for next year's brood, 

 there was nothing to recommend at that time except to 

 destroy the moths and their eggs as far as possible, and pre- 

 pare for the destruction of the caterpillars when they first 

 appear next spring. 



First Importation into America. 



" There is a statement in the second volume of the Ameri- 

 can Entomologist, page 111, published in 1870, and also in 

 Riley's Second Missouri Report on Insects, page 10, that 

 ' only a year ago the larva of a certain owlet moth {Ilypog- 

 ymna dispar), which is a great pest in Europe both to fruit 

 trees and forest trees, was accidentally introduced by a 

 ]Massachusctts entomoloiiist into New England.' 



