190 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 



clinging to and seeming to brood over the cocoon of its mortal enemy. 

 Numerous experiments have been made with other, similarly living 

 caterpillers from which parasites have emerged, in an attempt to make 

 them feed, and invariably these attempts have been unsuccessful. 

 Of all of the gipsy-moth parasites in Europe of which there is no 

 present prospect of introduction into America, this species is the 

 most promising, and yet, if dependence is placed upon the results of 

 the rearing records, it is so scarce as to be wholly inconsequential as 

 a parasite of this host. 



Meteorus versicolor Wesm. 



Very occasionally cocoons of this common brown-tail moth parasite 

 have been found in boxes of gipsy-moth caterpillars received from 

 European sources, but never in any numbers. Altogether not nearly 

 so many have been received as of the cocoons of Apanteles solitarius. 



It is apparently an incidental parasite of no consequence, and were 

 it not an enemy of the brown-tail moth as well, it is very improbable 

 that any attempt would be made to introduce it into America. 



As a parasite of the brown-tail moth it is of considerable promise, 

 and as a brown-tail moth parasite it has been introduced and is 

 apparently at this time thoroughly established over a considerable 

 territory. Upon several occasions it has been reared from gipsy moth 

 caterpillars collected in the field localities where it was particularly 

 common as a parasite of the brown-tail moth, but, as in Europe, it 

 expresses a strong preference for the last-mentioned host. 



Meteorus pulchricornis Wesm. 



Quite a number of this species has been reared from cocoons found 

 in the boxes of gipsy-moth caterpillars received from southern France, 

 and a very few have also been received from Italy. None of the 

 Meteorus which have been reared from the brown-tail moth in any 

 part of Europe have been anything else than M. versicolor, so far as 

 known. It is, of course, possible that two species similar in appear- 

 ance might easily have been confused, and no attempt has been made 

 to determine the specific identity of every specimen which has been 

 reared for liberation. 



There is nothing to indicate that M. pulchricomis is ever of more 

 consequence as a parasite of the gipsy moth than is M. versicolor, 

 and until evidence to the contrary is forthcoming it will not be con- 

 sidered as of importance or promise. 



Meteorus japonicus Ashm. 



Specimens of this species were secured from boxes of young gipsy- 

 moth caterpillars from Japan in very small numbers in 1908 and 1909, 

 but so far as could be determined it was of no more importance in 



