130 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



The slopes of the higher mountains were fairly well forested and a 

 larger variety of trees and shrubs thrived than on the lower elevations. 

 Over much of the country the soil was either too dry or too scanty or 

 both to permit of cultivation, even in a land so densely populated by so 

 thrifty a race, and here were found occasional thickets of scrub oak, 

 apparently of a deciduous species, which sometimes reached the 

 dignity of a small tree. For the most part such country was covered 

 with a scanty growth which would be called chapparal in some of our 

 States, composed of a variety of uninviting looking shrubs, judging 

 them from the probable viewpoint of a gipsy-moth caterpillar in 

 search of food. Taken altogether, the country may more aptly be 

 compared with southern California than with any other part of the 

 United States. 



It seemed to the visitor that if the gipsy moth were to be found in 

 any portion of this region it would most likely be within the rich and 

 well-watered bottom lands, where occasional hedges, or rows and 

 groups of large trees in considerable variety, seemed to offer fairly 

 acceptable conditions for its existence. But to his surprise and 

 amazement he was assured by M. Dillon that it was from the chapparal 

 covered, arid, and uncultivated elevations that most of the enormous 

 quantities of caterpillars had been collected. In support of this asser- 

 tion, after the visitor had searched in vain in what would be the most 

 likely situations in Massachusetts for the concealment of egg masses, 

 pupal shells, or molted skins, M. Dillon proceeded to turn over a few 

 loose stones among those which fairly covered the ground, and thereby 

 disclosed sufficient indication of the presence of the moth in fair 

 abundance to convince the most skeptical. In this particular 

 locality in the vicinity of the little provencal town of Meoun, in a 

 thicket of deciduous oak surrounding and concealing the ruins of an 

 ancient chapel, there were sufficient egg masses of the moth to repre- 

 sent a fair degree of infestation, but eggs, pupal shells, and molted 

 larval skins were all so completely hidden as to evade completely the 

 eyes of one who had been trained to look for first evidences in shel- 

 tered places on the bark or in the knot holes and hollow trunks of 

 trees. 



As a matter of fact, as was abundantly evidenced by that day's 

 experiences, as well as of the several days which followed, the gipsy 

 moth departed most materially from its characteristic habits in the 

 cooler, better watered and forested localities in which it is present as a 

 pest in America. Instead of being a typically arboreal insect, it is 

 rather terrestrial, and thereby becomes subjected to a variety of nat- 

 ural enemies to which it is practically immune so long as it remains 

 arboreal. In the course of the several years past a variety of species 

 of the larger European Carabidse has been studied at the laboratory 

 for the purpose of determining their availability and probable worth 



