176 Journal of Agricultural Research voLxv.no.s 



Oshanin (1909, p. 779) lists the distribution as — 



Scandinavia, Batavia, Britannia, Belgica, Germania, Helvetia, Gallia, Lusitania, 

 Hispania, Moldavia, Serbia, Romania, Hungaria, Rossia fere tota, Caucasus, Sibiria. 

 Regie nearctica (Canada, eastern United States). 



PUBUSHED RECORDS OF OCCURRENCE IN AMERICA 



The first record of the species in America that I can identify as refer- 

 ring to its occurrence in America is the one by Uhler (1S78, p. 397). 

 Provancher {1872, p. 78) recorded it for the vicinity of Quebec when he 

 listed it as a new species under the name " Mir is helangeri" in 1872 and 

 later {1886, p. 104) referring it to the European species under the name 

 "Leptoterna dolabrata L." In Uhler's Check List of Hemiptera Heterop- 

 tera {1886, p. 17) it appears under the name ''Leptoterna dolobrata" 

 with locahty as "E. St." Van Duzee (1887, p. 70) says: 



May to August. In dry fields. Probably our most abundant Hemipter. It 

 attains full development about June i, and frequently appears in immense swarms in 

 favorable localities. 



Later {1894, p. 176) he says: 



Often appears in immense swarms toward the last of June on grass in hayfields 

 and pastiures. 



Van Duzee {1905, p. 550) also records the species for the Adirondack 

 Mountains and {1908, p. iii) for Quinze Lake, Province of Quebec, 

 Canada, in 1907. Slosson {1894, p. 5) records the species for Mount 

 Washington, New Hampshire, above the 5,500-foot altitude. 



Webster and Mally {1897, p. 41) barely mention the species as abun- 

 dant on the heads of timothy in 1896, which is the first published record 

 for Ohio, though Mr. Hart says a specimen is in the Illinois collection 

 sent from Columbus by Prof. C. M. Weed, presumably about 1888 or 

 1890. 



The species is recorded for New Jersey for a number of localities by 

 Smith {1900, p. 128; 1910), but with no definite dates. It is also listed 

 by me {1900, p. 76) in the Ohio list, and its abundance in Maine is 

 referred to by Patch {1908, (p. 363) and by me {1916, p. 56). 



Finally a record of the rearing of a parasite, Phorantha occidentis, by 

 Leonard {1916) indicates its occurrence in 191 5 in New York. 



None of these records, except Uhler's, raises the question of the deriva- 

 tion ot the species, but from the facts that there were no early records of 

 damage in this country and that there seemed to be a distinctly westward 

 dispersal the possibility of its being an introduced species associated 

 with timothy {Phleum pratense) as its principal food plant seemed to 

 warrant an effort to determine this point. 



The following letter with note concerning the species was sent to a 

 number of entomologists in the various States and to Dr. C. Gordon 

 Hewitt, Dominion Entomologist, of Canada. 



