xii 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



and at once destroying them. Professor Riley thinks that would 

 diminish the conspicuousness of the colonies, so to speak, and 

 make it harder to find them, and thinks that an equal amount of 

 money would go further in poisoning with spray than it would in 

 collecting the eggs. I should like to hear from Mr. Scudder 

 what he thinks about the desirableness of doing anything with the 

 eggs. 



Mr. Scudder. I feel that I have no right to speak in the 

 presence of others here who have given special study to economic 

 entomology, while I have not. All I can speak upon is the 

 natural history of the moth, and on that side of the question it 

 might be well to ask whether it is behaving the same in this 

 country as in the old country. There are a number of moths 

 single-brooded in the old country which are double-brooded here. 



Professor Riley. I have assumed that it was single-brooded. 



Professor Fernald. I have bred it twice, two years in succes- 

 sion. 



Mr. Scudder. If it is single-brooded, there is this point to be 

 brought out, that, as the caterpillar is a very liberal feeder, so, of 

 course, it is very much more difficult to reach by spraying, because 

 the spraying is not to be confined to a few kinds of trees, but to a 

 very large number, so that one would say you would have to spray 

 almost everything you came across. So with the eggs, which are 

 laid not always on trees, but on almost anything else. It there- 

 fore becomes the most dangerous insect enemy we have had for a 

 long time, I think. If it is single-brooded, it seems to me that 

 nature has indicated the easiest means of attack. The eggs are 

 laid in batches, and are exposed for eight months of the year. 

 Therefore it seems to me that the egg is the place to attack. I 

 should suppose that the same amount of money expended in the 

 destruction of the eggs would effect a very much larger end than 

 the same amount of money spent in spraying. 



Professor Riley. I have been trying to bring out what knowl- 

 edge there is as to the actual range of the insect, and my remarks 

 on the possibility of stamping it out have all been based on that. 

 I want to say that if the insect has spread beyond the limits in- 

 dicated by Professor Shaler, and got into the larger trees, I think 

 the question of stamping it out a very doubtful one. At the same 

 time there is an opportunity here for the State of Massachusetts to 

 make the experiment, and show what can be done by efficient 

 means and intelligence. I would rather offer a higher bounty to 

 every school-boy for pointing out where the caterpillars are to be 

 found during two weeks in June, than for gathering the eggs. I 

 believe that there is a chance of stamping it out, if it is not 



