16 BULLETIN 1028, U. S. DEPARTMEXT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Notes made at another place state : 



Apanteles exceedingly common. Estimate 75 per cent control on average and 

 higher in some places. Estimate 10.000 cocoons on one large tree. 



To illustrate the abundance of cocoons, those present on an area 

 the size of a man's hand were counted and the number found was 

 187. Mr. Fiske states that there were more over a similar area high 

 up on the tree. The same day he visited another place and found 

 conditions similar. 



SECONDARY PARASITISM IN SICILY. 



Apparentl}^ the first-generation cocoons are not attacked seriously 

 by secondaries, probably less than 10 per cent being killed. Second- 

 ary parasitism of the hibernating cocoons is very heavy, and one note 

 was found referring to a location where it was feared that it would 

 almost exterminate the parasite. Sometimes as high as 75 per cent 

 of the cocoons from Sicily received at the laboratorj^ and wintered 

 were killed b}^ secondaries. 



COLONIZATION IN NEW ENGLAND. 



During the rush of the season's work it was supposed that two or 

 three species of Apanteles were represented and the importation and 

 colonizations were recorded in correspondence and in the notes as 

 A. solitarius and Apanteles II and III. The confusion was not at 

 all surprising for there were two and possibly three species repre- 

 sented, but the fact of the matter, as it appears at the present time, 

 is that the adults liberated during June, 1911. at Xorth Saugus, Mass.. 

 from cocoons imported from Sicily as A. solitarius, were adults of 

 the first generation of A. melanoscelus ; and that the cocoons received 

 later in the summers of 1911 and 1912. which were hibernated at the 

 laboratory, and the adults from which were liberated at Melrose 

 during the springs of 1912 and 1913, were cocoons of the second 

 generation of A. ineTmwscelus. 



During June, 1911, about 125,000 cocoons of the first generation 

 were received from Europe, and every precaution was taken to pre- 

 vent the escape of any secondaries which might be present. As soon 

 as the}' were received at the laboratory thej- were taken to Xorth 

 Saugus, Mass., and immediately placed in darkened containers from 

 which nothing could escape except by entering glass tubes, where 

 they were inspected, the good allowed to escape and the bad de- 

 stroyed. In this manner 23,000 adults were liberated during June 

 and July. 1911. During the months of July and August, 1911, 

 nearly 17,000 hiberating cocoons were received. These were iso- 

 lated at the Melrose Highlands laboratory, each one being placed in 

 a small gelatin capsule and then wintered under outdoor condition.^. 



