EARLY IDEAS ON INTRODUCTION. 47 



EARLY IDEAS ON INTRODUCING THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE 



GIPSY MOTH. 



Promptly with the discovery that the gipsy moth had become 

 acclimatized in Massachusetts, in 1889 there was published by Prof. 

 C. H. Fernald a special bulletin of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College Hatch Experiment Station, in which he gave popular descrip- 

 tions of the different stages of the insect and recommended spraying 

 with Paris green. He stated that the insect is generally held in 

 check by its natural enemies in Europe, but occasionally becomes 

 very destructive, and stated that 11 species of hymenopterous para- 

 sites and several of dipterous parasites had been noticed in Europe. 

 This bulletin was published in November, 1889. In January, 1890, 

 an illustrated article on the gipsy moth, by Riley and Howard, was 

 published in Insect Life, 1 and a list of 24 European hymenopterous 

 parasites compiled by Howard was published. 



Immediately following this publication, there was received at the 

 Department of Agriculture, from Rev. H. Loomis, of Yokohama, 

 Japan, a letter in which he stated that he had seen reports of the 

 ravages of the gipsy moth in Massachusetts and had taken consid- 

 erable interest in the matter. He also stated that he had seen the 

 gipsy moth caterpillar on a wistaria vine near his house in Yokohama, 

 and that it had been attacked and killed by a parasite. Several of 

 the parasites were sent in an accompanying box, and proved to be 

 Apanteles. Subsequent attempts were made by Mr. Loomis to send 

 this parasite in living condition both to the Department of Agricul- 

 ture and to the State of Massachusetts, but all arrived dead, for the 

 most part having been killed by secondary parasites. 



In March, 1891, a conference was held in the rooms of the com- 

 mittee on agriculture at Boston, at which were present Prof. N. S. 

 Shaler, Gen. F. H. Appleton, and Mr. William R. Sessions, of the 

 State board of agriculture; Prof. C. V. Riley, entomologist of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture; Prof. C. H. Fernald, ento- 

 mologist of the State Experiment Station; Mr. S. H. Scudder, a well- 

 known entomologist ; the mayors of Medf ord, Melrose, Arlington, and 

 Maiden, and others. In the course of the conference, which was held 

 for the purpose of discussing the best measures to be taken against 

 the gipsy moth by the State, Prof. Riley advocated an attempt at 

 extermination by spraying. Mr. Scudder advocated the destruction 

 of the eggs, and in the course of the discussion Prof. Riley made the 

 following remark: 



I would make one other suggestion, and that is, that as an auxiliary method it would 

 be well to spend $500 or $600 in sending one or two persons abroad next summer with 

 no other object than to go to some section of northern Europe to collect and transmit 

 to authorized persons here a certain number of the primary parasites of this species, 



1 Insect Life, Division of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, vol. 2, pp. 208-211, 1890. 



