INJURIES IN THE OLD WORLD. 



273 



became too heavy for flight, and at last abandoned all at- 

 tempts, just as the gypsy moth is now doing, and that by dis- 

 use these organs became atrophied, and nothing now remains 

 but mere rudiments of the wings. A similar fate possibly 

 awaits the gypsy moth. Two of the species of Orgyia, 

 figured on Plate 39, Figs. 14 and 17, are so-called natives 

 of this country; while the other. Fig. 11, is a native of 

 Europe, and has been in this country probably a compara- 

 tively short time, not long enough, at any rate, for the new 

 environment to produce any noticeable change. Since the 

 introduction of O. definita (Fig. 14) and 0. leucostigraa into 

 this country, whenever and in whatever way that may have 

 happened, the three species have been in an environment 

 which has produced marked changes in the males, while the 

 wingless females have probably changed far less. The two 

 American species have changed so little from each other that 

 O, definita^ for a long time, was not recognized as a distinct 

 species. It may have branched off from the stem of leucos- 

 tigma at a comparatively recent date. 



If, in comparatively recent times, the gypsy moth made its 

 way into England, by the help of man or otherwise, may not 

 the darker color of the foliage and other surroundings have 

 rendered the female moths more conspicuous objects to their 

 enemies, so that, in the struggle for existence," this species 

 was exterminated before it had time to take on the darker 

 colors, as may have been the case with the British Tortri- 

 cids? It may be thought that the warm, damp climate of 

 England would favor fungoid plants which are destructive to 

 insect life ; but, if this caused the extermination of the gypsy 

 moth in England, why has it not also caused the extermi- 

 nation of numerous other species with more or less similar 

 larval habits? If any of the above conditions caused the 

 extinction of this moth in England, we have little to hope 

 for in America, since so very little of our territory has any 

 such climatic conditions as England. 



IJs^JURIES EN" THE OlD WoELD. 



There are many accounts, in the older books, of extensive 

 damage done by insects at different times in various parts 

 of Europe, some of which was probably caused by the gypsy 



I 



