156 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 
insignificant numbers, which could not be secured much more easily 
in other ways, and no further importations were attempted in 1909. 
Relatively such small quantities of this class of material have been 
received as to make unnecessary any specially devised methods for 
their economical handling. With very few exceptions the boxes were 
opened immediately upon receipt and most carefully sorted for parasites 
and living caterpillars. A few of the large Japanese boxes were not 
opened immediately, but holes were bored in the end, cones and tubes 
inserted, and living insects of all sorts thus attracted to the light and 
removed. The living caterpillars were placed in cages or trays and 
fed, and occasionally a few parasites were thus secured in addition 
to those present in the boxes upon receipt. 
It is very much to be regretted that the dead and dying cater- 
pillars were not preserved for subsequent examination and dissection, 
but it was only in 1909, after the shipments of this sort of material 
had been discontinued, that the wholesale dissection of caterpillars 
was attempted for the purpose of ascertaining the proportion of 
parasitized individuals. At the best, even after long experience, it is 
a tedious process, especially in the case of material which has been 
killed and preserved. 
A few caterpillars, accidentally imported in their early stages with 
Apanteles cocoons in 1910, were saved and dissected with good results 
from a technical standpoint. 
GIPSY-MOTH CATERPILLARS, FULL-FED AND PUPATING. 
Importations of large caterpillars (Pl. VI) ready or nearly ready 
to pupate were first made in 1905, and it was demonstrated during 
that year that they could be brought to America with a fair degree 
of success, and that at least a proportion of the parasites with which 
they were infested could be reared. 
Ever since 1905 we have been attempting to improve upon the 
methods first used during that year and have experimented with 
scores of modifications of the most successful, some of which were 
intentional while others were incidental to the fact that there have 
been many different collectors, each of whom has displayed some 
individuality in his methods of collecting and packing. It would 
be tedious and is probably unnecessary to go into detailed de- 
scriptions of even a part of these various intentional or accidental 
experiments. 
The most successful method yet devised involves the use of rather 
shallow wooden boxes having a capacity of from 40 to 70 cubic 
inches. (See Pl. VIII, fig. 3.) Quite a large number of shipments 
has been made in much larger boxes, but their condition on receipt has 
almost invariably been very bad. The boxes must be tight to prevent 
the escape of tachinid larve, which can apparently pass through any 
we i ——— ee el ee 
