i8o Journal of Agricultural Research voI.xv.no.s 



regions concerned in the course of a few decades, although without 

 artificial assistance its progress must have been slow. 



In the Harris collection, now in the Museum of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, I have seen specimens which had been collected in the 

 vicinity of Boston bearing dates of 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835. In regard 

 to these, Uhler (i8y8, p. jgy) stated that — 



This species, evidently introduced from Europe, has recently become fully estab- 

 lished in localities where it did not exist a few years ago. In Maryland, on the edges 

 of wheat fields, and in eastern Massachusetts on grassy low grounds, it appears in 

 swarms. About ten years ago I first met with a few individuals near Baltimore, by 

 sweeping the grass, etc., about the edge of a wheat field; since then they have greatly 

 multiplied, and large numbers may now be obtained there and in similar localities 

 elsewhere. In Cambridge, Mass., the grass is sometimes crowded with them. Speci- 

 mens from Connecticut, kindly obtained for me by Mr. Edward Norton, have the 

 antennae yellow, and are a little more slender than usual. Both the short- winged 

 and the fully- winged varieties occur in all the localities known to me. 



Evidence in favor of the species being an introduced one may be 

 summed up briefly as follows : 



(i) Miris dolabratus has been a common insect in Europe for an in- 

 definite period, covering a large area and doubtless associated with the 

 cultivated grasses to which it seems so closely restricted here. 



(2) The species was not known in America until about 1830, when it 

 was collected by Harris, as noted by Uhler (1878, p. J97) and also 

 recorded by Provancher (1886, p. 104), although a number of careful 

 students such as Say, Uhler, and Walsh had given no little attention 

 to the insects of the group to which it belongs and would almost cer- 

 tainly have encountered it in their work in different parts of the country 

 where it now occurs if it had been present in any abundance. 



(3) It has shown a gradual westward and southward dispersal indi- 

 cated by the available records, which show that it occurred in New 

 England in 1832, Maryland in 1868, Quebec in 1872, New York in 1887, 

 Ohio in 1888 (?), Illinois in 1906, and Kentucky in 1908. 



(4) It is adapted to certain cultivated grasses which were introduced 

 from Europe, and its close restriction to these and apparent inability 

 to adapt itself to native grasses even of as large forms as the cultivated 

 ones is very significant. 



(5) In the plan of hibernation of eggs in stems there is evidently fur- 

 nished abundant opportunity for the transportation of eggs to distant 

 points in hay shipped for forage or packing. 



DISTRIBUTION IN MAINR 



The meadow plant bug has certainly been present and abundant in 

 Maine for many years, but except for the notes by Prof. H. T. Fernald 

 there does not appear to have been any record that assists in deter- 

 mining the time of its appearance or the extent of distribution. The 



