AN INFRARED VIEW ON THE AGB EVOLUTION

We present an analysis of the recent stellar evolution model for the A symptotic Giant Branch made by Vassiliadis and Wood (1993). We find th at their scenario is in qualitative agreement with the recent finding that the mass loss interruptions are a common behavior during the late stages of stellar evolution. It is also demonstrated that their model predictions for the evolution of a variable star with an initial mass of 1 M. are in agreement with the ratio of optically discovered Galac tic Bulge variables over those detected by IRAS. We find, however, tha t their mass loss formula underestimates the mass loss rates during so me stages of the evolution.