164 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



sort of protection was utterly impossible. Automobile goggles were 

 used to protect the eyes, various forms of respirators to prevent the 

 inhalation of the spines, the hands were protected by rubber gloves, 

 and the neck and face were swathed in accordance with the fancy 

 of the operator. 



Two ingenious types of headdress (PL IX, fig. 1) were devised by 

 Mr. E. S. G. Titus in the hope that they would solve the difficulty, 

 but it was found that they were not only unbearably hot, but that 

 the glass fronts would quickly become covered with moisture which 

 could not be removed. 



In 1907 a much larger quantity of this sort of material was received 

 than during the previous summer, and it was practically a necessity 

 that some method be devised which would do away with at least part 

 of the trouble. After some little experimentation the arrangement 

 shown in the illustration was the result. (PL IX, fig. 2.) It con- 

 sisted of an ordinary show case, with sides and top of glass and with 

 a wooden slide in the back. The two ends were removed and re- 

 placed with boards in which armholes had been cut. Thick canvas 

 sleeves were attached to these, through which the gloved hands of 

 the operator were thrust, and it was found that the work could be 

 done with what was, comparatively speaking, a minimum of dis- 

 comfort and danger. 



In 1908, for several reasons which need not be entered into here, 

 it was thought desirable to discontinue, temporarily, the importation 

 of large quantities of the pupating caterpillars, and it was also demon- 

 strated that all of the parasites which were secured from them would 

 complete their transformations without being kept moist. The work 

 of sorting over the boxes of parasite material was thus demonstrated 

 to be unnecessary, and, consequently, in 1909, when large importa- 

 tions were resumed, the covers were simply removed from the boxes, 

 which were then stacked up in the large wooden tube cages (PL X, 

 fig. 1), which had originally been constructed for the rearing of 

 parasites from the imported hibernating nests. 



BROWN-TAIL MOTH PUPJE. 



Several attempts have been made to ship the pupae (PL VII) 

 of the brown-tail moth, packed in moss, as was at one time rec- 

 ommended for the shipment of the pupae of the gipsy moth. Such 

 attempts have usually been more or less satisfactory, but never as 

 satisfactory as when the cocoons were collected in the field and placed 

 loose in the boxes together with the active caterpillars. If only a 

 small portion of the pupae is collected in the field, the only sure method 

 of detecting their presence is by the occurrence of the pupal parasites 



