EXTENT OF GIPSY-MOTH PARASITISM ABEOAD. 125 



of Apanteles it would seem as if the emaciated caterpillars could not supply sufficient 

 nourishment to bring the tachinids to maturity. * * * From the standpoint of 

 parasite control the situation at Kief is most inspiring, but as a field in which to gather 

 a quantity of material it is evidently not very hopeful. The whole situation is in 

 violent contrast to what I found at Bendery and Gauchesty, where dispar is vastly 

 more abundant this year than last, with little sign of the multiplication of parasites. 



Bendery, Russia, July 10, 1909. 

 In the forest of Kitzkany where dispar caterpillars prevailed to an incredible extent 

 three weeks ago, not a single caterpillar or pupa is to be found. An epidemic of a 

 bacterial nature swept them away in millions. In the forest of Gerbofsky, among 

 the great oak trees, the number of caterpillars that have formed pupae is surprisingly 

 small. Vast numbers of caterpillars swarmed over the trees, completely stripping 

 them of leaves. Deserting the trees, the caterpillars swarmed over the ground in 

 search of other food and vast numbers died of starvation and disease. These trees 

 are now putting forth new leaves which promise to sustain the life of the forest. 



After the close of the " caterpillar season" in 1910 the junior author 

 took a vacation trip to Europe and, thanks to an extension of leave 

 for the purpose and still more to the kindness of Mr. N. Kourdumoff, 

 entomologist of the experiment station in Poltava, was enabled to 

 spend about 10 days in the field in Kief and Kharkof Provinces. In 

 Kief the forest at Mishighari, which is mentioned by Prof. Kincaid 

 as the one locality where he found the parasites in control, was visited, 

 as well as. several other localities in that province. This portion of 

 Kief Province, topographically, meteorologically, and otherwise, is 

 radically different from Massachusetts, and much more like portions 

 of Minnesota than any other part of the United States with which the 

 visitor is at all familiar. The forests, which are limited in extent as 

 compared with those of Massachusetts, are less diversified. For 

 the most part they are of pine, mingled with a small quantity of oak, 

 wild pear, birch, and occasionally other trees. Everywhere the 

 gipsy moth was rare or at least uncommon, and everywhere the 

 cocoon masses of Apanteles fulvipes were at least as abundant as the 

 egg masses of their host. 



At Mishighari the conditions remained much as described by Prof. 

 Kincaid, except that the cocoon masses of Apanteles were even moro 

 abundant than his letters would indicate. Upon some trees they 

 were litter ally matted together by the thousands in such semipro- 

 tected situations as are selected by the caterpillars at the time of 

 molting. The forest in this particular locality was varied to an extent 

 not noticed elsewhere. In addition to the generally distributed oak, 

 birch, and poplar were quantities of beech, alder, Carpinus, maple, 

 elm, and other species, while the shrubs were equally varied and abun- 

 dant. The forest was situated upon the steep bluffs overhanging the 

 Dnieper, running down on one side to its banks, where great willows 

 bore evidence of the high water which sometimes covered their 



