Apr. 1, 1925 
Two Imported Egg Parasites of the Gipsy Moth 
645 
During the last two or three years 
the Service for the Study and Extinc¬ 
tion of Forest Plagues in Spain has been 
utilizing this parasite in its control 
work against the gipsy moth by trans¬ 
ferring Anastatus from areas where it 
is abundant to the areas where it is 
not present. 
EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN REPRO¬ 
DUCTION TO OBTAIN SCHEDIUS 
KUVANAE FOR COLONIZATION 
In December, 1908, the first living 
Schedius was reared from Japanese 
gipsy moth eggs at the gipsy-moth 
laboratory. This was a male which 
soon died. Early in January, 1909, a 
female Schedius was reared. This fe¬ 
male reproduced parthenogenetically, 
and 15 male Schedius were reared in 
February from the eggs in which she 
had oviposited. An attempt to mate 
her with her progeny was unsuccessful 
and she died without further offspring. 
In April, 1909, 12 adult Schedius were 
reared from Japanese eggs and used in 
starting several series of reproduction 
experiments. One of the females died 
soon after the beginning of the experi¬ 
ment. One hundred adult Schedius 
were obtained through these experi¬ 
ments, the first generation to be devel¬ 
oped in America. Added to these were 
21 adults which issued from imported 
eggs. The second generation gave 643 
adults, which in turn produced 1,350 
Schedius in the third generation. To 
these Schedius of the third generation 
were added 1,671 adults from imported 
eggs. These reproduction experiments, 
started in April, continued throughout 
the year 1909. In August, after the 
progeny from the fourth generation 
had issued, a few colonies were liber¬ 
ated. During the fall several more 
colonies were liberated as the stock 
increased, until over 40,000 Schedius 
had been colonized. 
The Schedius in the reproduction 
trays continued to increase until early 
in 1910, when it was estimated that at 
least 1,000,000 Schedius were on hand. 
The trays containing this material were 
placed in a cool cellar until March, In 
the spring most of the Schedius and 
parasitized eggs were divided into a 
few less than 100 colonies and the mate¬ 
rial was distributed over a considerable 
part of the moth-infested area of Mas¬ 
sachusetts. The Schedius and para¬ 
sitized eggs not distributed were placed 
in cold storage for the summer, in an 
attempt to carry them over so that a 
stock would be on hand in the fall of 
1910 for starting new reproduction 
trays. No more Schedius were ob¬ 
tained from this material, however, all 
of which perished before the end of the 
summer. 
DESCRIPTION AND LIFE HISTORY 
OF SCHEDIUS KUVANAE HOWARD 
DESCRIPTION OF ADULT 4 
Female —Length, 0.99 mm.; expanse, 2.39 mm.; 
greatest width of fore wing, 0.43 mm. Vertex and 
cheeks very faintly shagreened; mesoscutum nearly 
smooth, shining, with minute, rather sparse punc¬ 
tures; mesoscutellum densely and rather coarsely 
shagreened, well rounded at tip; propleura very 
faintly shagreened, somewhat shining. General 
color black; mesoscutellum with a bronzy luster; 
trochanters, tips of femora, apical half or a little 
more of front and middle and hind tibiae yellowish; 
all tarsi lighter; antennae dark brown; dark parts 
of the legs more brown than black. Wings hyaline. 
[See fig. 1, a.] 
Male— Length, 0.9 mm.; expanse, 2.28 mm.; 
greatest width of fore wing, 0.43 mm. Resembles 
female, except that the flagellum of the antenna is 
light brown, and except for the structural charac¬ 
ters mentioned in the generic diagnosis. 
Described from numerous male and female speci¬ 
mens reared September, 1908, at the gipsy moth 
parasite laboratory of the State of Massachusetts 
and the Bureau of Entomology, at Melrose High¬ 
lands, Mass., from the eggs of Porthetria dispar re¬ 
ceived from Tokyo, Japan, from S. I. Kuwana, 
Entomologist of the Imperial Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station at Nishigahara, Tokyo, after whom 
the species is named in partial recognition of his 
great services to the United States in sending para¬ 
sites from Japan. 
Type— No. 12158, United States National 
Museum; Gipsy Moth Laboratory No. 1698. 
OVIPOSITION AND IMMATURE STAGES 
Females of Schedius deposit their 
eggs within the egg of the gipsy moth 
and if the host larva is developed, as is 
usually the case, the parasite egg is 
placed within the body of the cater¬ 
pillar. The egg (fig. 1, b ) has a long 
stalk which is attached to the host 
egg at the point where the egg of the 
gipsy moth was punctured by the fe¬ 
male parasite. Gipsy-moth eggs which 
have been exposed to Schedius females 
fn laboratory • experiments often have 
several parasite eggs placed in them by 
the same or different females. The 
time required for oviposition varies con¬ 
siderably and records of from 9 to 45 
minutes have been obtained. The pro¬ 
cess usually takes from 10 to 20 
minutes. 
Oviposition (fig. 2, a) often begins 
during the first day of adult life and 
extends over several weeks. In one 
experiment where seven fertilized fe- 
4 Howard, L. O. technical results from the gipsy-moth parasite laboratory, i. the parasites 
REARED OR SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN REARED FROM THE EGGS OF THE GIPSY MOTH. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. 
Ent. Tech. Ser. Bui. 19: 1-12, illus. 1910. 
