62 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWX-TAIL MOTHS. 



ceased to issue the remaining nests and larvae were burned. But 

 later observations showed this destruction to have been a mistake. 

 It was not considered likely that other parasites could be reared 

 from these imported larvae if they were fed and reared as far as pos- 

 sible, but such proved to be the case, as will be shown later. 



During the winter of 1905-6 efforts were made to import in winter- 

 ing conditions the two large European ground-beetles, Calosoma 

 sycophanta (see PL I, frontispiece) and C. inquisitor. Xo success in 

 importing living specimens was gained until March, 1906, but from 

 that time on until July small consignments of living adult beetles 

 were received, and in all 690 living specimens of Calosoma sycophanta 

 and 172 of C. inquisitor arrived at Boston alive, some of them djing 

 soon after arrival. Colonies were started in various localities about 

 Boston. Consideration of the history of these two species will be 

 given in Bulletin 101. 



After visiting the parasite laboraton^ in March and determining 

 the success of the importation of the brown-tail nests, the senior 

 author sailed from New York on the 17th of the month for Europe, 

 returning to America May 17. 



Proceeding directly to Paris, Mr. Kene Oberthur was met by appoint- 

 ment, and the whole subject of the summer work was carefully con- 

 sidered. Mr. Oberthur is a man of affairs, proprietor of a large 

 printing business, a learned amateur entomologist, and the possessor 

 of one of the largest insect collections in the world. His advice and 

 assistance throughout the whole work has been most important, and 

 he assures the American representatives that he has highly appre- 

 ciated the opportunity of being of assistance and of taking part in 

 such an interesting piece of work. At his advice the writer proceeded 

 to the south of France, after interviewing correspondents and agents 

 in Paris, and visited Prof. Valery Mayet at the agricultural school 

 at Montpellier, Dr. P. Siepi, of the Zoological Gardens in Marseilles, 

 and Mr. Harold Powell, of Hyeres. Both Prof. Mayet and Dr. Siepi 

 stated that both of the injurious species of insects were rare in their 

 vicinity, but both promised to assist in the importation of the Calosoma 

 beetles. Mr. Powell proved to be a lepidopterist who had been 

 employed professionally by Mr. Oberthur as a collector, and he was 

 engaged to collect parasitized larvae in Hyeres and in the Enghadine 

 district. He sent in much good material, and later, as will be shown 

 in subsequent pages, organized a Ymy efficient service in the summer 

 of 1909. The visit to Prof. Mayet at Montpellier, moreover, was by 

 no means devoid of results, since at a later date he was able to send 

 a few specimens of carabid beetles, and in 1908, as a result of this 

 personal interview, he was able to send to America the first living 

 specimens of the European egg parasite of the imported elm leaf- 

 beetle, Tetrastichus xanthomelsense Marchal, which, as a result of this 



