366 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
difficult and imparting a strong acrid taste to' the mucous expelled. 
In more advanced cases, typical asthma resulted. At first these 
attacks were attributed to ordinary hay fever until it was noticed 
that the attacks continued long after the early frost had killed the 
flowers that are commonly blamed for this malady. Some individuals 
were affected more than others, but as a rule, those who had been 
working with the species for the longest period were affected the 
worst. 
In attempting to recover pupal parasites, a great many pupae, inside 
their cocoons, were collected each autumn and placed in paste board 
box cages, from which a glass vial protruded. From the pupae not 
parasitized, adults often emerged and thrashed about inside the cage, 
instead of finding their way into the glass vial. In this manner, the 
interior of the cage became thickly strewn with hairs from the bodies 
of the adults and with the urticating spines from the last moulted skins 
of the larvae, which had been entangled in the cocoons. When clean¬ 
ing this type of cage or examining its contents, these hairs and spines 
floated in the air and caused the same affliction as previously described 
when handling the larvae. During the last two seasons, the writer 
found it absolutely necessary to moisten the interior of these cages 
before working with them. On several occasions, when this precau¬ 
tion was not taken, a severe attack of bronchitis and asthma was the 
ultimate result. 
To illustrate, on one occasion during-late October, 1916, at a time 
when the writer was feeling perfectly healthy and normal in every 
way, one of these cages was examined without taking the precaution of 
moistening its contents. Within a few seconds, the air in the vicinity 
of this open cage became extremely irritating; soon sneezing and 
coughing began, with excessive watering of the eyes and nasal passages, 
continuing at intervals until bedtime. The next morning the bronchial 
region felt sore and contracted (the sneezing had stopped), and great 
difficulty was experienced in breathing, the same being accompanied 
by a wheezing noise. The point is again emphasized that this change 
had taken place within a period of twelve hours. The asthmatic con¬ 
dition grew rapidly worse and necessitated the services of a physician 
for several days before relief was finally obtained^ 
Several men connected with the H. olivice investigations have suf¬ 
fered with these attacks during the past three years, and it has been 
noticed that each attack appears to be of greater intensity than the 
preceding one. This tendency will probably render it imperative that 
susceptible individuals avoid all contact with H. olivioe and, in order 
to secure immunity or relief in cases of this kind, it may even be nec¬ 
essary to transfer these individuals from that part of the country where 
