EARLY IDEAS ON INTRODUCTION. 
47 
EARLY IDEAS ON INTRODUCING THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE 
GIPSY MOTH. 
Promptly with the discover}' that the gipsy moth had become 
acclimatized in Massachusetts, in 1SS9 there was published by Prof. 
C. II. Fernald a special bulletin of fche Massachusetts Agricultural 
College Hatch Experiment Station, in which lie gave popular descrip- 
tions of the different stages of the insect and recommended spraying 
with Paris green. He stated that the insect is generally held in 
check by its natural enemies in Europe, but occasionally becomes 
very destructive, and stated that 11 species of hymenopterous para- 
sites and several of dipterous parasites had been noticed in Europe. 
This bulletin was published in November, 1889. In January. 1890, 
an illustrated article on the gipsy moth, by Riley and Howard, was 
published in Insect Life, 1 and a list of 24 European hymenopterous 
parasites compiled by Howard was published. 
Immediately following this publication, there was received at the 
Department of Agriculture, from Rev. II. Loomis, of Yokohama, 
Japan, a letter in which he stated that he had seen reports of the 
ravages of the gipsy moth in Massachusetts and had taken consid- 
erable interest in the matter. He also stated that he had seen the 
gipsy moth caterpillar on ;i wist aria vine near his house in Yokohama, 
and that it had been attacked and killed by a parasite. Several of 
the parasites were sent in an accompanying box. and proved to be 
Apanteles. Subsequent attempts were made by Mr. Loomis to send 
this parasite in living condition both to the Department of Agricul- 
ture and to the State of Massachusetts, but all arrived dead, for the 
most part having been killed by secondary parasites. 
In March. 1S91, a conference w as held in the rooms of the com- 
mittee on agriculture at Boston, at which were present Prof. N. S. 
Shaler, Gen. F. EL Appleton, and Mr. William K. Sessions, of the 
State board of agriculture; Prof. C. V. Riley, entomologist of the 
Tinted States Department of Agriculture; Prof. C, H. Fernald, ento- 
mologist of the State Experiment Station: Mr. S. II. Scudder, a well- 
known entomologist ; the mayors of Medford, Melrose, Arlington, and 
Maiden, and others. In the course of the conference, which was held 
for the purpose of discussing the best measures to be taken against 
the gipsy moth by the State, Prof. Riley advocated an attempt at 
extermination by spraying. Mr. Scudder advocated the destruction 
of the eggs, and in the course of the discussion Prof. Riley made the 
following remark: 
I would make one other suggestion, and that is. that as an auxiliary method it would 
be well to spend $500 or $600 in sending one or two persons abroad next summer with 
no other object than to go to some section of northern Europe to collect and transmit 
to authorized persons here a certain number of the primary parasites of this species, 
• Insect Life, Division of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, vol. 2. pp. 206-211, 1890. 
