2°76 PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWN-TAIL MOTHS. 
were possible to do so, as the result of the elaborate colonization 
work already described, and that any harm which might result was 
probably already done, so it was determined to use these larve and 
pupz for the purpose of giving the parasite one more opportunity to 
retrieve a lost reputation. The brood lived through the summer in 
cold storage without much loss, and in the fall one tremendous colony 
of some 200,000 individuals was established in the midst of a tract 
of small oak, well infested with nests of the brown-tail moth. The 
adults issued at a time when there was nothing to prevent their 
entering these nests and ovipositing immediately, and there were 
enough of them to destroy all of the caterpillars of the brown-tail 
moth within a considerable radius. There were many larve to be 
found in the nests that winter, but, as was the case in the laboratory, 
only a few of the more exposed caterpillars were attacked. 
A rather elaborate series of nest collections was made within a 
radius of a mile of the center of the colony, but the data obtained 
were of little consequence. From only a part of the many lots of 
nests did any of the parasite issue, and its probable rate-of dispersion 
was not definitely indicated. One lot of nests collected a little over 
a mile away produced a few individuals, and this was the only 
instance in which it could be shown to have traveled so far. 
At the same time large collections were made in the vicinity of the 
1908 colonies, from which, it will be remembered, some few parasites 
had been recovered the winter before. In no instance was it again 
recovered, and there was everything to indicate that it had failed 
to establish itself. 
No attempt whatever was made to rear 1t for colonization in 1910, 
and until the beginning of the winter of that year it was considered 
that the story of Pteromalus in America was complete. It is the 
unexpected which usually happens in the gipsy-moth parasite labora- 
tory, however, and even as the rough manuscript for the last few 
pages was being prepared, Chapter II of the history of Pteromalus 
egregius in America was about to begin. 
Every winter since that of 1906-7, to and including the present, 
an increasingly large number of the hibernating nests of the brown- 
tail moth have been collected from various localities throughout 
eastern Massachusetts and confined in tube cages in the laboratory. 
In the first two winters this was done for the express purpose of 
recovering Pteromalus and, as has been already stated, without 
result. In the winter of 1908-9, it was found that Monodontomerus 
was to be recovered in this manner over a considerable territory and 
under conditions which were both interesting and instructive. 
Accordingly, beginning with that winter, the collections have been 
made general throughout the territory in which it was thought lkely 
that Monodontomerus would occur, and wrth less reference to the 
— 
