CIRCUMSTANCES OCCASIONING WORK. 49 



No attempt has been made to import parasites thus far for the reason that the law 

 requires the work to be conducted with direct reference to the extermination of the 

 gipsy moth, and, therefore, the general destruction of the insect would also destroy 

 the parasites. There is no reason why our native hymenopterous parasites may not 

 prove to be quite as effective as those of any other country, since there is no parasite 

 known which confines itself exclusively to the gipsy moth, and, as has been shown, 

 we have several species which attack it as readily as any in its native country. 



This position with regard to the nonimportation so long as exter- 

 mination of the gipsy moth was the end, held until the State of 

 Massachusetts ceased its appropriations, in the year 1900. 



CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH BROUGHT ABOUT THE ACTUAL BEGIN- 

 NING OF THE WORK. 



During the five years that elapsed before the State again began to 

 appropriate money for the suppression of the gipsy moth and the 

 brown-tail moth, as is well known, the gipsy moth spread from a 

 restricted territory of 359 square miles throughout an extended range 

 of 2,224 square miles and even more. As soon as the effort to exter- 

 minate it was abandoned, owing to the lapse of the appropriations 

 for the year 1900, the project of importing parasites was taken up 

 by the Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, who began correspond- 

 ence with a number of European entomologists with this end in view. 

 Especial efforts were made to import the Calosomas, but failed, 

 partly owing to a lack of interest in the matter on the part of the 

 Europeans. In 1902 Mr. W. B. Alwood, entomologist of the Vir- 

 ginia Agricultural Experiment Station, went abroad for a series of 

 months and was requested by the chief of the entomological service 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture to endeavor to find, 

 in some well-placed situation in Europe, one or more competent col- 

 lectors of insects who would undertake systematically to send gipsy- 

 moth parasites to America. This effort also failed, and Mr. Alwood 

 was unable to find the proper persons. Finally, in December, 1904, 

 Congress was asked to make a small appropriation for the distinct 

 purpose of attempting the importation of these parasites, and the 

 sum of $2,500 was appropriated for this purpose in the session of the 

 winter of 1904-5. During the corresponding session of the Massa- 

 chusetts State Legislature, State appropriations began once more. In 

 1904 it was apparent to everyone that the old areas had become 

 reinfested and that the insect had spread widely. Private* estates 

 and woodlands in June and July of that year were almost completely 

 defoliated. Kirkland wrote: 



From Belmont to Saugus and Lynn a continuous chain of woodland colonies pre- 

 sented a sight at once disgusting and pitiful. The hungry caterpillars of both species 

 of moths swarmed everywhere; they dropped on persons, carriages, cars, and auto- 

 mobiles, and were thus widely scattered. They invaded houses, swarmed into living 



95677°— Bull. 91—11 4 



