12 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 24 3 



home far away, we have specimens from Queensland, New South Wales, 

 and South Australia. This is the only known Australian tingid colonized 

 in the Americas. 



Contrary to the usual statements, Stephanitis rhododendri Horvath is indig- 

 enous in the United States and Canada. It is not a European element 

 transported to North America from Holland as generally credited. Mu- 

 seum specimens bearing locality and collecting dates prove that the rhodo- 

 dendron lacebug was widely dispersed in eastern and central parts of the 

 United States and in southern Canada at the time the species was 

 originally described from Holland. This indigeneity of rhododendri is in 

 agreement with the findings and hypothesis proposed by Johnson (1936) 

 relative to its native patria. Furthermore, in general aspect, rhododendri 

 is systematically nearer to S. blatchleyi Drake of Florida than it is to members 

 of this genus in the Old World, or even to its South American congeners. 

 Shipments of nursery stock of the decorative rhododendrons and azaleas 

 account for its disjunct, synathropous dispersion in the Old World. Since 

 the tingid rhododendri and also pyrioides overwinter in the egg stage, the erica- 

 ceous hosts with persistent leaves serve as insidious conveyors of the eggs 

 in plant shipments. 



Teleonemia scrupulosa Stal is indigenous in Mexico, West Indies, Central 

 and most of South Americas. It was experimentally introduced in the 

 Hawaiian Islands from Mexico for the "biological control" of the noxious 

 lantana plant. As a result of the Hawaiian tests, scrupulosa was intentionally 

 transported and released in numbers for the same biological end in the 

 East Indies, Australia, India, and Africa, where it is now firmly colonized 

 and becoming widely spread. This is the only tingid species employed in 

 the biological control of troublesome plants and, furthermore, the only 

 New World lacebug intentionally imported into the Eastern Hemisphere. 

 No lacebug has been purposely introduced into the Americas from the Old 

 World. 



Corythucha morrilli Osborn and Drake, a recent overseas transport into the 

 Hawaiian Islands, is a native of southwestern United States, Mexico, 

 Central America, and the West Indies. Records indicate that it was 

 probably accidentally included in shipments of nursery plants from south- 

 western United States to Hawaii. 



Tingis auriculata (Costa), indigenous in several European countries, was 

 collected by Uhler many years ago in Maryland and has not been taken 

 there since. It probably was unable to self-maintain its population in 

 eastern United States. 



Dictyonota tricornis (Schrank) is an indigene in many countries in Europe, 

 central Asia, and northern Africa. Although discovered in eastern Canada 

 and New England States a half a century ago, its increase and spread for 

 an introduced species have been slow. The North American specimens from 



