152 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 
IMPORTATION AND HANDLING OF PARASITE MATERIAL. 
Since insects like the gipsy moth and the brown-tail moth are sub- 
jected to the attack of different species of parasites at different stages 
in their development, it has been necessary, in order to secure all of 
these, to import the host insects in as many different stages as pos- 
sible and practicable. If the present experiment in parasite intro- 
duction is brought to a successful conclusion, it will undoubtedly 
encourage the undertaking of other experiments in which similarly 
imported pests are involved. Even should it fail, from a severely 
practical standpoint, and the complete automatic control of neither 
the gipsy moth nor the brown-tail moth should be effected, it seems 
to us that the technical results already achieved are sufficient to give 
encouragement rather than the opposite to similar undertakings in 
the future. It is therefore desirable to describe in some detail the 
various methods employed for the importation and subsequent 
handling of the parasite material. 
With very few exceptions the methods first employed proved more 
or less unsuitable. Sometimes they were entirely discarded; usually 
they were modified to suit the exigencies of the occasion. Some- 
times these modifications were in comparatively unimportant par- 
ticulars which would scarcely be pertinent to any other insect than 
the gipsy moth or the brown-tail moth, and realizing this there will 
be no attempt in such cases to enter into lengthy descriptions. At 
other times radical modifications have been found necessary on 
account of unforeseen difficulties which would be likely to occur in 
pretty nearly any other undertaking along anything like similar lines. 
EGG MASSES OF THE GIPSY MOTH. 
The importation of egg masses of the gipsy moth (see Pl. VI) 
from European sources has been attended with no difficulty whatever, 
beyond that of securing the collection of these eggs in sufficiently 
large quantities. Any style of package, provided that it were suffi- 
ciently tight to prevent loose eggs from sifting out, was as good as 
another, and any one of the established means of transportation 
served the purpose. 
In the case of shipments from Japan serious difficulties were 
encountered. One of the parasites peculiar to that country and 
unknown in Europe invariably issued en route and died without 
reproducing. Various attempts to overcome this difficulty without 
having recourse to cold storage failed and it was only after cold- 
storage facilities were perfected and used that living parasites of this 
species were secured in numbers. 
As in the instance of similar shipments from Europe, no special 
form of package was required, but at the same time a word of appre- 
