titE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 163 



now scarcely known. Some climatic condition may likely make it a thing 

 of the past. How, whence, and when it was introduced along the Atlantic 

 sea coast is unknown ; it could scarcely have been from Europe, as it is 

 little known there where it is a very recent importation. If the " buggy'' 

 beans fed to the soldiers in the North and South during the war of the 

 Rebellion were raised in these respective regions, it is evident the insect 

 must have been widely spread previously to i860 ; if beans were imported' 

 in large quantity, it would shed much light, were the countries known 

 from which they had been brought. It is quite probable the present 

 invasion is not the first visit this insect has made to North America, but on 

 any former occasion it could not have met with so good entertainment. 

 Through commercial intercourse with southern countries it probably 

 reached Louisiana during the first part of the present century, and was 

 transported northward as far at least as the State of Indiana, where Say 

 found it. Whether the insect described by Say was the same species 

 which depredates on beans is sometimes questioned, because the examples 

 from which he made the description were obtained from the seeds of a 

 something he terms Astragalus. . His description is, however, so appli- 

 cable in many points to the bean Bruchns that had he written "obtained 

 from beans," the question would likely never have been raised. Besides 

 it is neither food habits nor locality which constitutes a species. What 

 Say meant by an Astragalus is uncertain, probably the Wistaria frutescens^ 

 as none of the species of the genus Astragalus as now constituted, which 

 grows in that part of Indiana has seeds sufficiently large to breed the 

 insect. Much more might be said. Suffice it to say that if the examples 

 Say described belonged to the foreign species, that species existed there 

 only temporarily, and long ago disappeared, as it has certainly lately done 

 from this locality. If it is a native species, then it is almost certainly in 

 existence in that part of Indiana, depredating as in Say's time on 

 Astragalus, whatever that may be. To reject Say's name before a species 

 of ^rz/^/;«5 shall have been found in Indiana raised from some native 

 Siliquose plant or tree to which his description shall apply as well or 

 better, would seem, to say the least, an arbitrary and unnecessary pro- 

 ceeding. 



This species is now widely distributed through the warm countries of' 

 the globe : Central and South America, West India Islands, Madeira, 

 the Canaries, the Azores, the countries of Europe, Africa and Asia border- 

 ing the Mediterranean, Persia, etc. 



