EXTENT OF GIPSY-MOTH PARASITISM ABROAD. 
127 
tion of which had gone through to pupation, and everywhere the 
Dumber of fresh egg masses was very much smaller than was that of 
the okl. Nowhere was there evidence of parasitism by Apanteles 
fulvipes to anything like the extent which prevailed in the vicinity of 
Kief. Cocoon masses were occasionally found, nearly always old, 
sometimes ver) old and so discolored as to be with difficulty dis- 
tinguished from the hark to which they were attached. In Kief the 
number of cocoon masses was everywhere in considerable excess over 
the number ol egg masses. Here the nnmher of egg masses was enor- 
monslv in excess of the number of cocoon masses. 
Kxamination of the pupal shells for evidences of parasitism was 
unavailing. It could be said with assurance that pupal parasites 
wen' certainly not common and that the death of the pupa' (for pro- 
portionately very few of them hatched) was not due to any of the 
pupal parasites which were known from western European localities. 
The earth beneath the cocoon masses was examined for evidences of 
tachinid puparia. For a time none was found, but search w as finally 
rewarded by t he discovery of Blepharijxi scutdhita in most extraor- 
dinary abundance in a single one among the numerous localities 
visited. This particular forest, which was very near to the village 
of Khijhof and about S miles from Kharkof, was unique among the 
others visited in the variety of its trees. The soil was rich, the trees 
were larger, and the undergrowth was more abundant and varied, 
but at the same time there was less diversity than was encountered 
in the forest at Mishighari. I'nfort unately, the presence of the 
puparia could not be considered as of much significance, because they 
were practically all hatched and obviously dated back more than one 
year. The parasite had surely not been responsible for the reduction 
in numbers of the gipsy moth which had taken place in the season of 
1910, and neither had it prevented the moth from increasing to such 
numbers as to bring about partial defoliation of the forest in 1910 
before disaster in one form or another bad overtaken it. 
Of other tachinids there were practically none, and it is certain that 
they would have been found had they been present. Compsilura 
concinnata is even now so abundant as a parasite of the gipsy moth in 
Massachusetts as to bring about an appreciable percentage of des1 ruc- 
tion in 1910, and its puparia are recovered from tin 4 field with ease. 
Had it been one-tenth as common in Russia it could not have failed 
of detection. The same is true of Tachma, which, although it effects 
a parasitism of less than 1 percent in Massachusetts, is not diflicult 
of detection, and it is safe to say that not much if any more than this 
amount of parasitism prevailed in Kharkof. All told, not enough 
parasites were found to indicate that they had played any important 
part in the reduction of the moth from a serious menace to the well- 
