NARRATIVE OF PROGRESS OF WORK. 65 
the writer had been unable to secure answers to letters addressed 
to correspondents in Russia and the reported unsettled condition 
of affairs in that country deterred him during the 1905 and 1906 
trips from visiting the Russian southern Provinces. In the late 
summer of 1906, however, advices were received from Prof. J. Por- 
chinsky, of the ministry of agriculture at St. Petersburg, with the 
information that in the southern part of Russia both the gipsy moth 
and the brown-tail moth were at that time occurring in sufficiently 
great numbers to enable the collection of parasites and commending 
the writer to certain officials, trained entomologists, in Simferopol 
(Crimea), Kishenef (Bessarabia), and Kief. Prof. Porchinsky wrote 
that he had apprised these officials of the intended visit, and plans 
were therefore made to include southern Russia in the itinerary for 
the spring of 1907. 
During the autumn of 1906 egg masses of the gipsy moth con- 
tinued to be received from parts of Europe, and during the winter 
hibernating nests of the brown-tail moth were sent in. More than 
111,000 nests were received from different portions of the European 
range of the species. These were placed in the especially constructed 
cages, and from many of them large numbers of parasites were 
reared, issuing mainly during the month of May, 1907. As it hap- 
pened, the month of May in New England, as well as in other parts 
of the United States, was phenomenally cold and wet. As a result 
of this unlooked-for condition very many of the parasites refused 
to leave the nests until they were so weakened as to be unable to 
survive the close confinement and careful scrutiny to which they 
were necessarily subjected in order to eliminate the danger of intro- 
ducing secondary parasites. As a result, a smaller number of Ptero- 
malus egregvus was colonized in the summer of 1906, but 40,000 speci- 
mens were put out in several localities, the principal colonies consist- 
ing, respectively, of 13,000, 11,000, and 7,000 individuals. At this 
time, as well as in the summer of 1906, although this fact has not as 
. yet been stated, a number of important parasites of the genus Mono- 
dontomerus issued from the winter nests and were allowed to escape. 
As will be shown subsequently, this parasite has proved to be more 
important than the Pteromalus and has made a phenomenal spread. 
In this important work with the introduced hibernation nests 
of the brown-tail moth it was early found most difficult to preserve 
the health of the laboratory assistants. The irritating and poisonous 
hairs of the brown-tail moth larve, of which the nests are full, soon 
penetrated the skin of the assistants handling them, entered their 
eyes and throats, and the atmosphere of the laboratory became 
almost filled with them. Jt was necessary that the rooms should 
be kept thoroughly closed; double windows and screens were used, 
95677°—Bull. 91—11——_5 
