Lad 
PROBABLE ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION. rips 
J.C. Neal, while at Stillwater, Okla., wrote me that he had observed 
the species to have the same habit in that Territory, miles from any 
human habitation. Dr. Asa Fitch* found them swarming amidst 
extensive prairies in Illinois, in 1854, while more recently Mr. C. L. 
Marlatt has witnessed the same phenomenon in Kansas.’ In short, 
this gregarious habit seems to be most tenaciously adhered to wher- 
ever these insects are found in any numbers. When migrating from 
one field to another, after crossing a roadway or plowed field they 
will at once flock together on a few plants along the margin of the, 
to them, new field instead of scattering about, two or three to a plant. 
It may also be added that Mr. Koebele found the species in large 
numbers along the seashore not far from San Francisco, Cal., in the 
first, second, and third stages of development, on a species of grass 
growing along the coast. 
It has not, so far as is known to the writer, been observed in similar 
places along the shores of the Great Lakes, though search has been 
made for it there, but it occurs in destructive abundance in timothy 
meadows inland in northern and northeastern Ohio 25 to 75 miles dis- 
tant, most generally clustering about the roots of grass—which, by the 
way, is about the only vegetation attacked—as the species is described 
as doing along the seacoasts. It may also be stated that it seems to 
hibernate there precisely as observed by Mr. Marlatt in Kansas; 
Doctor Neal in Oklahoma; Mr. Schwarz in Virgina in the vicinity 
of Fortress Monroe, and as the earlier observations of Doctor Fitch 
in Illinois would imply. Thus we find this habit of clustering upon 
the plants attacked to be a constant one, and where the natural grass 
vegetation has not been displaced by farm crops, thus leaving the 
ground more or less bare during winter, the chinch bugs continue to 
hibernate there. With these two characteristic habits generally fol- 
lowed over the great area inhabited by the species in North America, 
we may add a third possible factor in the problem of origin and 
diffusion of the species which, though an anatomical dimorphism, 
may be discussed as likely to throw considerable light upon the prob- 
able ancient habitat of the insect. 
OCCURRENCE OF THE LONG AND SHORT WINGED FORMS AND THEIR 
DISTRIBUTION. 
The occurrence of both the long and short winged forms, inter-. 
mixed along our seacoasts and in the northeastern section of the 
country, but not elsewhere, shows very plainly that this dimorphism 
is not due to the temperature of any particular locality, but must 
be regarded as having been brought about by disuse of the wings 
« Second Report, Insects of New York, p. 283. 
b Insect Life, Vol. VII, pp. 2382-254. 
