Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2012
The remarkable discovery that the larch sawfly, Pristiphora erichsonii (Htg.), had developed an immunity, in parts of North America, to one of its principal parasites, the ichneumon, Mesoleius tenthredinis Morl., followed Lejeune's report (6) that parasitism rarely had exceeded 5 per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan since 1940. Muldrew (8, 9) showed that the immunity phenomenon resulted from the formation of a phagocytic capsule around the parasite's egg. The occurrence of parasite resistance by the larch sawfly in Minnesota and Wisconsin was observed in 1952 (2, 4).