2 BULLETIN 1028, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
their native homes to Xew England. A comprehensive report 2 of 
this work from its beginnings through 1910 has been published in 
Bulletin 91 of the Bureau of Entomology. 
Among the imported parasites which are now established is 
Apanteles melanoscelus Patz., a double-brooded parasite of the 
gipsy moth. The following report has been prepared in two parts: 
Part I contains the description of the species and its life history, 
and Part II takes up its introduction and establishment. 
PART I.— DESCRIPTION AND LIFE HISTORY. 
HISTORY. 
The insect was described by Patzeburg 3 in 1844 very briefly as 
follows (translation) : 
Microgaster melanoscelibs is so similar to solitarius that, since it also has 
the same mode of life, one might regard it as merely a variety of that species ; 
but it is distinguished not only by the very black femora. . . but also by the 
third abdominal segment being scarcely rugose, only coarsely punctate at base. 
Pits at the base of the scutel very narrow. The one male which I possess is 
only one line long. 
In 1852 Patzeburg 4 again mentions this species and gives a 
record of its being reared from Porthetria dispar L. and Stilpnotia 
solids L. 
Peinhard 5 writes in 1880 as follows : 
The specimens called by Ratzeburg (Ich. der Forstinsect. Ill) Apanteles 
melanoscelus, bred from Liparis salicis, are beyond all doubt this species. 
Peinhard is here speaking of A. solitarius and believes the two 
to be synonymous. In the same article he places Patzeburg's type of 
A. melanoscelus in A. difficilis (Nees) Peinh. This is undoubtedly 
incorrect, as the biology of the two parasites is very different. 
Marshall 6 writes in part as follows of A. difficilis: 
Common. The cocoons are flesh-colored or buff . . . ; a few, by some accident, 
are more yellow. The maggots, on leaving the body of their victim, make 
separate naked cases, without clustering together. From 1 to 20 issue from a 
single caterpillar, according to its size. 
Dalla Torre 7 in 1898 also considered melanoscelus synonymous 
with A . difficilis (Nees) Peinh. 
a Howard, L. O., and Fiske, W. F. the importation into the united states of the 
PARASITES OF THE GIPSY MOTH AND THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH. U. S. Dept. AgT. Bill'. Ent. 
Bul. 91. 344 p., 74 figs., 27 pi. (1 col.). 1911. 
3 Ratzeburg, Julius Theodor Christian, die ichneumonen der forstinsecten, 
v. 1, p. 74, no. 21. 1844. 
4 Ratzeburg, Julius Theodor Christian, die ichneumonen der forstinsecten, 
v. 3, p. 56, no. 51. 1852. 
5 Reinhard, H. beitrage zur kenntnis einiger braconiden-gattungen. In Deutsche 
Ent. Zeitschr., jhrg. 24, heft 2, p. 352-370. 1880. 
".Marshall, T. A. monograph of British braconidae, Pt. 1. In Trans. Ent. Soc 
London. 1885, p. 163. 
7 Dalla Torre, C. G. de. catalogus hymenopterorum, v. 4, braconidae, p. 168. 1898. 
