58 
PARASITES OF GIPSY AND BROWX-TAIL MOTHS. 
microgaster parasites. Their white cocoons were found abundantly, 
and here again, although there must have been 250 or more larvae on 
the trees, the evidences of defoliation were very slight — so much so 
that at a rather short distance the trees appeared in full leaf. Dur- 
ing the remainder of June and July Mr. Wagner continued the search 
and sent considerable material to Mr. Kirkland, at Boston. 
After Vienna, the city of Budapest was visited. At the Natural 
History Museum in that city Dr. G. Horvath, the well-known director, 
and Prof. Alexander Mocsary were consulted, Prof. Mocsary being one 
of the first authorities in Europe on the subject of parasitic Hymen- 
optera. Neither of these gentlemen, however, was able to give any 
new points in connection with the parasites of the gipsy moth and 
the brown-tail moth. The agricultural experiment station in the sub- 
urbs of Pesth was then visited, and Prof. Josef Jablonowski, the 
entomologist of the station, was consulted." By this time it was 
the 4th of July, and already the season in Hungary was far advanced, 
being about two weeks or more earlier there than at Vienna. Prof. 
Jablonowski stated that gipsy moths had been found in certain 
localities in Transylvania, but that the adults were already issuing 
and that the brown-tail moths had been flying for some time. He 
exhibited, however, a large box full of the previous winter's nests 
of brown-tail larvae, and stated that in the early spring he had 
reared from these nests many hundreds of parasitic insects. This at 
once seemed to indicate a very easy way of importing such parasites, 
since these nests could be readily collected in the winter in large 
numbers and sent to Boston in great packages — a bushel or more in 
each package — in the late fall or winter season, and Prof. Jablonowski 
volunteered to make every effort the following winter to send over 
a large quantity. Taking into consideration the small size of the 
brown-tail moth caterpillars during hibernation, it seemed very 
strange that they should be so extensively parasitized as indicated 
by Jablonowski. The larger caterpillars in the late spring and early 
summer would seem to' be much more likely to be extensively infested. 
These winter nests, remaining alone on the trees after the leaves have 
fallen, would seem to be an attractive place for small Hymenoptera 
of various kinds, in which they might seek shelter for hibernation, and, 
while of course there was a chance that some of the true parasites of 
later stages might thus be sheltered, it was with considerable doubts 
as to the ultimate result that the writer arranged for the importation 
of these nests in large quantity. Even if unsuccessful, however, it 
seemed that the experiment must be tried. 
From Budapest, Dresden was reached, and, as in Vienna and 
Budapest, the- principal museum (the Zoological Ethnological 
Museum) was at once visited. Dr. K. M. Heller, at that time acting 
director of the museum, was asked to recommend a good man who 
