Vol. XXli] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 307 



Mr. Evans had some doubt that his specimen belong- 

 ed to the European species, for he had only a single European 

 specimen for comparison and this showed differences in the 

 punctuation and in size. A good series of European speci- 

 mens of Chrysoinela staphylea before me shows considerable 

 variation in these respects, fully covering the differences noted 

 by Mr. Evans. The three specimens recently captured by Mr. 

 Perrin remove all doubt that Mr. Evans had the European 

 species. 



The occurrence of Chrysomela staphylea at a seaport in 



constant communication with Europe naturally leads to the 



supposition that it was introduced through commerce. It is 



barely possible that we have here an additional circumpolar 



species, but in this case it should have been found in other 



northern localities ; however, our knowledge of the insect 



fauna, past and present, of boreal America is too limited to 



warrant a conclusion. All three specimens sent by Mr. Perrin 



were captured on MacNabs Island near Halifax. I wrote to 



Mr. Perrin to ascertain if much European shipping touched 



at this point, and the presence of the beetles could be account- 



ed for in this way. Mr. Perrin replied as follows : "The beetle 



you refer to may have been imported with some farm and gar- 



den seeds that we have had, or else by the former owner of this 



place. There being no shipping to the island, I cannot account 



for it in any other way. Of course there is much shipping from 



Europe done at Halifax, but that is at least two and a half 



miles from the nearest point of land from here." Entomologists 



will agree with me that the probability of the beetle having 



been introduced with garden seed is rather remote it probably 



reached the island indirectly, as it seems from the above record 



that it was previously established on the nearby mainland. At 



all events the insect is well established on the above named is- 



land, specimens having been captured at considerable intervals, 



one of them on June 18, 1910, the other two on August 5 of 



1 List of Coleoptera from Halifax, N. S. Can. Ent., vol. 31, p. 320- 

 321 (1899). 



