80 
NATURE 
[May 25, 1899 
the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 
doubt, by this time in the hands of zoologists. 
But it is mere justice to my friend, Prof. Dendy, to place 
before our European colleagues the following facts in regard to 
Dr. Schauinsland’s reference to the inactivity and lack of 
enthusiasm exhibited by Colonial zoologists in the matter of this 
most interesting member of our local fauna. 
The Tuatara is quite properly ‘‘ protected” by the Govern- 
ment of New Zealand ; permission to obtain material for the in- 
vestigation of its life-history was granted to Dr. Dendy, and the 
lighthouse-keeper on Stephen’s Island, a Government servant, 
was permitted to collect the eggs and embryos for him. But 
subsequently, and without any communication with Dr. Dendy, 
and before he had obtained more than a few (if any) eggs, 
the Government also gave permission to Dr. Schauinsland to 
collect eggs, and moreover instructed their servant on Stephen’s 
Island to give him every assistance. 
In this instance, then, Dr. Schauinsland’s charge of lack of 
enthusiasm is not only baseless. but wanton. 
The following fact is not without bearing in this connection. 
A certain foreign zoologist was recently on a visit to New 
Zealand for the purpose of collecting the rarer and more 
characteristic animals, amongst others the Bulimoid pulmonate, 
Placostylus bovinus. Having obtained all the individuals 
living, as well as shells only, on which he could lay his hands, 
he proceeded to crush all the young ones he could see, and 
was heard to remark that if any future zoologist or conchologist 
wished for a specimen he would have to go to a certain town in 
Europe (and not to New Zealand). 
Dunedin, N.Z., April 13. Wo. 
and is, no 
BLAXLAND BENHAM. 
THE GIPSY MOTH, AND ITS INTRODUCTION 
INTO AMERICA. 
ANY persons, whether entomologists or not, must 
have noticed a rather slender, dark-coloured moth 
with feathery antennz flying among bushes on the 
continent ; and a much larger, stout-bodied, whitish-grey 
moth, sitting on hedges, or on the trunks of trees. 
Dissimilar as these insects may appear, they are never- 
theless the male and female of the Gipsy Moth ( Porthetria 
dispar), the male of which flies about in the day-time like 
that of the Vapourer Moth (Wotolophus antiguus), a small 
tawny-brown moth with a white spot on the fore-wings, 
which has an apterous female, and the caterpillar of 
which feeds ona great variety of trees and shrubs (Fig. 1). 
The two moths are not distantly related, both belong- 
ing to the family Zzfaridae, but while the Vapourer Moth 
is sO common with us that it is often seen flying even 
in the streets of London, wherever there are any trees 
near, the Gipsy Moth is now so rare here as to be thought 
to be extinct in England, though it is abundant, and 
often destructive, on the continent. The entomologists 
of the last century speak of it as very rare in England, 
and as having been introduced into the orchards of 
Chiswick, where, however, it failed to establish itself. 
Subsequently, Stephens wrote that it was rare in the 
neighbourhood of London, though it had been taken 
occasionally at Coombe Wood, but that it was abundant 
in the fens of Huntingdonshire. It is very singular that 
several insects of general distribution on the continent, 
among which we may specially mention Papilio machaon, 
Lycaena dispar, and Porthetria dispar, should have 
ound their last stronghold in England, like the Britons 
and the Saxons, in the fens, though the Gipsy Moth 
was formerly common in fens which are still undrained, 
as well as in some which no longer exist. It is also 
remarkable that the English fen-specimens of both the 
butterfly and moth named dsfar were much larger 
and finer on an average than the continental represent- 
atives of the same species ; and that both should have 
become practically extinct in England since the drainage 
of the fens. 
In 1857, Stainton wrote of the Gipsy Moth: “This 
species is apparently less common here than formerly,” 
NO. 1543, VOL. 60] 
and mentioned Halton in Buckinghamshire, and Stow- 
market in Suffolk, as localities. Afterthis time, the moth 
became rapidly scarcer, and I am not aware that any 
authentic British specimens have been taken of late 
years, though a degenerate breed of British origin was 
preserved among entomologists for a long time, and 
may be still. 
Far different has been the history of the Gipsy Moth 
in America, where it is not indigenous, though the insect 
extends across the northern part of Asia-Europe from 
England to Japan, and is abundant, if not destructive, 
in most parts of its range. 
Thirty years ago, a French entomologist, named 
Leopold Trouvelot, was living at Medford, in Massachu- 
setts. He was engaged in carrying on a series of 
experiments on rearing moths, which he thought might 
possibly be made useful as silk producers. Among other 
species, he imported the Gipsy Moth, and, by some 
accident, some of the insects escaped from his custody 
into his own or the neighbours’ gardens. The most 
Fic. 1.—Gipsy Moth: a, egg mass; 4, caterpillars; c, chrysalis ; 
moth; e, female moth. (Reproduced from ‘ Insects : 
Foes.” By Dr. W. Egmont Kirby. Partridge and Co.) 
d, male 
Friends and 
probable story is that some eggs were blown out of the 
window, and that’M. Trouvelot was much concerned 
at not being able to find them ; for the female is a very 
sluggish insect, which is seldom or never seen on the 
wing. 
Had prompt measures been taken, the insect might 
possibly have been exterminated; but it does not 
seem to have attracted any attention till about 1880, 
when the people then living in or near M. Trouvelot’s 
former residence began to be troubled with swarms of 
caterpillars, though what they were, and whence they 
came, was then unknown. For several years the neigh- 
bouring houses suffered severely, apple- and pear-trees 
and shade-trees being stripped of their leaves and 
killed, and the caterpillars creeping all over and into 
the houses. Nevertheless, they spread very slowly along 
the street, and into the surrounding woods till 1889, when 
the insects multiplied so much that the caterpillars 
stripped all the trees in the immediate neighbourhood of 
M. Trouvelot’s old house, and then marched forth in 
