TACHINID PARASITES OF THE GIPSY MOTH. 233 



external characteristics were concerned, were indistinguishable from 

 those of Blepharipa from Europe. None of the flies issued the 

 following spring owing to the bad conditions under which the puparia 

 were received, but an examination of the pupae, which like those of 

 Blepharipa developed adult characters in the fall, was sufficient to 

 convince Mr. Townsend that the species was nothing else than 

 Crossocosmia sericarise itself. 



Mr. Townsend' s determination of the species was partially con- 

 firmed in the spring of 1910 when several hundred of the flies were 

 reared from puparia received the previous summer. Later the same 

 year, through the kindness of Dr. Kuwana, specimens of the bona 

 fide "uji" parasites, reared from silkworms, were received at the 

 laboratory. No differences whatever were discernible and the con- 

 firmation appears complete. 



There was an opportunity, during the summer of 1910, to dissect 

 a few of the caterpillars of dispar from Japan, and among those so 

 dissected by Messrs. Thompson and Timberlake were found several 

 which contained the young larvae of Crossocosmia in the ganglia, 

 exactly as described by Dr. Sasaki. Thus it was that his account of 

 the life of the "uji" was confirmed in its every particular in which 

 his remarks were based upon actual observation and not in part 

 upon speculation as to the significance of certain obscure phenomena. 

 To Mr. Townsend, and perhaps more particularly to Mr. Thompson, 

 who has devoted considerable time and performed a vast amount of 

 tedious and in some instances unremunerative dissection work, is 

 the credit due for thus removing all reflection upon the accuracy of 

 Dr. Sasaki's remarkable observations. 



In practically every respect, except in the location of the first-stage 

 maggots in the body of their host, the life and habits of Crossocosmia 

 as a parasite of the gipsy moth agree with those of Blepharipa. In 

 Japan it is of about the same relative importance as a parasite as 

 Blepharipa in Europe. Its habits of pupation and the difficulties 

 experienced in providing for its successful hibernation are identical. 



Its value as a parasite of the gipsy moth in America depends very 

 largely upon the success which attends the attempts to import and 

 establish the European parasite. Should this be accomplished, as 

 now appears probable, any special efforts to import Crossocosmia 

 might well be deemed unnecessary. It is highly improbable that 

 two species having habits so exactly similar would be any more 

 effective than one. 



But it is pretty evident that in one other and very important 

 respect the habits of Blepharipa are different from those of Crosso- 

 cosmia. It is apparently quite as abundant in Europe as is Crosso- 

 cosmia in Japan, but even in the most important silk-producing 

 regions it is yet to be recorded as an enemy of the silkworm. It 



