58 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



microgaster parasites. Their white cocoons were found abundantly, 

 and here again, although there must have been 250 or more larvae on 

 the trees, the evidences of defoliation were very slight — so much so 

 that at a rather short distance the trees appeared in full leaf. Dur- 

 ing the remainder of June and July Mr. Wagner continued the search 

 and sent considerable material to Mr. Kirkland, at Boston. 



After Vienna, the city of Budapest was visited. At the Natural 

 History Museum in that city Dr. G. Horvath, the well-known director, 

 and Prof. Alexander Mocsary were consulted, Prof. Mocsary being one 

 of the first authorities in Europe on the subject of parasitic Hymen- 

 optera. Neither of these gentlemen, however, was able to give any 

 new points in connection with the parasites of the gips}" moth and 

 the brown-tail moth. The agricultural experiment station in the sub- 

 urbs of Pesth was then visited, and Prof. Josef Jablonowski, the 

 entomologist of the station, was consulted. By tins time it was 

 the 4th of July, and already the season in Hungary was far advanced, 

 being about two weeks or more earlier there than at Vienna. Prof. 

 Jablonowski stated that gipsy moths had been found in certain 

 localities in Transylvania, but that the adults were already issuing 

 and that the brown-tail moths had been flying for some time. He 

 exhibited, however, a large box full of the previous winter's nests 

 of brown-tail larvae, and stated that in the early spring he had 

 reared from these nests many hundreds of parasitic insects. This at 

 once seemed to indicate a very easy way of importing such parasites, 

 since these nests could be readily collected in the winter in large 

 numbers and sent to Boston in great packages — a bushel or more in 

 each package — in the late fall or winter season, and Prof. Jablonowski 

 volunteered to make every effort the following winter to send over 

 a large quantity. Taking into consideration the small size of the 

 brown-tail moth caterpillars during hibernation, it seemed very 

 strange that they should be so extensively parasitized as indicated 

 by Jablonowski. The larger caterpillars in the late spring and early 

 summer would seem to be much more likely to be extensively infested. 

 These winter nests, remaining alone on the trees after the leaves have 

 fallen, would seem to be an attractive place for small Hymenoptera 

 of various kinds, in which they might seek shelter for hibernation, and, 

 while of course there was a chance that some of the true parasites of 

 later stages might thus be sheltered, it was with considerable doubts 

 as to the ultimate result that the writer arranged for the importation 

 of these nests in large quantity. Even if unsuccessful, however, it 

 seemed that the experiment must be tried. 



From Budapest, Dresden was reached, and, as in Vienna and 

 Budapest, the principal museum (the Zoological Ethnological 

 Museum) was at once visited. Dr. K. M. Heller, at that time acting 

 director of the museum, was asked to recommend a good man who 



