3i9 
Lymantria  was  imported  to  Medford,  Mass.,  in  1868  by  Prof. 
Leopold  Trouvelot  for  the  purpose  of  study.  A few  specimens 
escaped  from  the  Professor  and  once  at  liberty  they  became 
acclimated  and  multiplied  in  that  locality.  In  1890  the  presence 
of  Lymantria  began  to  impress  the  population  of  the  infected 
zone  which  comprised  by  that  time  twenty  towns,  then  the  Bureau 
of  Agriculture  of  Massachusetts  undertook  the  suppression  of 
this  insect  and  spent  from  1890  to  1899  large  sums  in  this  work, 
about  $1,200,000,  succeeding  in  reducing  Lymantria  to  a mini- 
mum but  certainly  not  in  exterminating,  this  being  impossible. 
After  such  result,  in  1900,  the  agricultural  office  of  the  state 
thought  it  timely  to  strike  from  its  expense  account  the  sum  appro- 
priated for  the  fight  against  Lymantria,  leaving  to  private  in 
dividuals  and  to  city  administrations  the  care  of  continuing  the 
fight.  But  from  1900  to  1904  Lymantria  again  developed  and  to 
an  alarming  degree  and  then  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
founded  a laboratory  for  the  fight  against  this  insect  entrusting 
the  direction  to  A.  H.  Kirkland  and  endowing  it  with  $150,000 
per  year  which  in  1906  was  raised  to  $225,000. 
The  area  in  Massachusetts  occupied  in  1899  by  Lymantria  had 
extended  in  1905  fourfold  and  spread  also  to  the  following  States : 
Rhode  Island,  Maine,  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire.  In  this 
State  the  government  appropriated  in  1906  the  sum  of  $83,500 
and  in  the  two  following  years  $25,000. 
Euproctis  was  introduced  at  Sommerville,  also  in  Massachusetts 
with  some  small  plants  in  1890,  but  not  till  1897  was  a beginning 
made  to  fight  it  together  with  Lymantria.  In  1899  it  was  dis- 
covered also  in  New  Hampshire. 
As  may  be  seen,  the  two  most  destructive  Lepidoptera  have 
already  widely  spread  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  North 
Americans  and  will  without  doubt  and  in  spite  of  the  incessant 
artificial  fight  which  is  now  everywhere  waged  against  them,  it 
being  inaugurated  in  all  the  different  States,  continue  to  spread 
and  to  seriously  menace  tree  cultivation  in  North  America  if 
nature  does  not  step  in  with  its  powerful  means  to  check  its  de- 
velopment. Fortunately  a bacterial  malady  had  been  observed 
among  the  larvae  of  these  lepidoptera  also  in  North  America,  some 
local  insect  parasite  has  begun  to  adapt  itself  destroying  a small 
number,  but  all  that  is  still  little. 
In  1891  at  a conference  held  in  Boston,  about  the  best  method 
to  destroy  Lvmantria  Prof.  Riley,  besides  recommending  the  va- 
rious methods  of  artificial  fight,  suggested  to  send  one  or  two 
persons  to  several  European  countries  to  collect  and  send  to 
America  primary  parasites  of  this  species.  But  this  proposition 
was  not  accepted,  which  was  a great  mistake,  because  had  it  been 
followed,  perhaps  by  this  time  L.  dispar  and  Euproctis  would  have 
been  conquered  in  the  United  States  even  more  thoroughly  than 
in  Europe,  by  their  parasite. 
Taking  up  again  the  fight  against  these  insects,  Prof.  Howard 
