IMPORTATION AND HANDLING OF PARASITE MATERIAL. 153 
ciation must be said for the wonderful care with which the Japanese 
entomologists packed the egg masses for shipment. Good-sized and 
wonderfully well-constructed wooden boxes were used and each mass 
was wrapped separately in a small square of soft rice paper. 
Considering the ease with which egg masses of the gipsy moth 
ought, theoretically, to be obtained and shipped to the laboratory, 
the number received in response to the requests which were made for 
their collection and shipment was astonishingly small during the 
first two winters. Up to that time only a very few dead parasites 
of an undescribed genus and species had been received from 
Japan, and none at all had issued from any of the few European 
importations. 
In 1908 the several lots of eggs were placed in small tube cages of 
the ordinary type and the caterpillars killed as they issued. Some 
time after the eggs had hatched a few parasites began to appear 
simultaneously from the European and Japanese material, which 
proved upon examination to be Anastatus bifasciatus in each instance. 
Later a few T'yndarichus nave were reared from the Japanese eggs 
and supposed, rightly enough, to be secondary, although probably 
not, as at first supposed, upon Anastatus. This hyperparasitism 
was by no means certain, and it was resolved to determine the fact 
definitely the following fall and winter, provided additional importa- 
tions could be secured. The desired material was imported and an 
exhaustive study of the parasites which were present was made, with 
the result that the five species were reared and their host relations as 
well as their relations one to another definitely determined. The 
execution of this project proved to be much more tedious than was 
expected, and was, in fact, the feature of that winter’s work. Fur- 
ther mention of the investigation will appear in the discussion of 
Schedius kuvane. 
GIPSY-MOTH CATERPILLARS, FIRST STAGE. 
In the spring of 1907 an attempt was made to import the cater- 
pillars of the gipsy moth in their first instar, and a considerable num- 
ber was received from several different localities. The experiment 
was not a success and was not repeated. The mortality was heavy 
en route and only a small proportion of the caterpillars would feed 
after receipt. Some few were carried through to maturity, but no 
parasites were reared. 
It is very probable that if recourse were had to cold storage, 
caterpillars could very successfully be transported in this stage, but 
the importation of slightly larger caterpillars indicates that the per- 
centage of parasitism would average to be very small at the best, and 
it is probable that the best would rarely be achieved. 
