1911] llypera and Phytonomus in America 405 



Distribution: The species was described by Fabricius in 

 1775 from Sweden, and both Schaeffer and Geoffroy list it 

 without a name. Nearly all of the earlier writers mention it 

 and in 1826 Curtis made it the type of Germar's genus Hypera. 



It is common over all Europe and northern Asia, occurs and 

 probably also common in central Asia and in China. Asia 

 Minor and the north coast of Africa appear to be more rarely 

 inhabited by this species, isabellinus taking its place in Egypt. 



It is becoming well distributed over the United States and 

 southern Canada, occurring now on both coasts and at least as 

 far south as Texas, Tennessee and North Carolina. 



The following records are based on literature, specimens 

 seen, and records sent me by various collectors. 



The type of o pirn us is from the Melsheimer collection and 

 is an almost perfect specimen of the pure gray form. The 

 Canadian specimen mentioned in 1876 by Leconte was received 

 by him from Mr. D'Urban of the Geol. Survey of Canada 

 about 1850-55. It was not until 1881 that the species was 

 again reported, when it occurred at Barrington, N. Y. ; in 1882 

 Lintner took a specimen in Vermont. In 1884 punctatus 

 reached Canada in numbers, flying across the lake from Buffalo 

 to Ridgeway, 1889 it occurred in several places in Ohio, prob- 

 ably having reached there the previous year. Hamilton reports 

 it from Western Pennsylvania in 1891 and Schwarz identified a 

 beetle taken from the stomach of a crow killed in Michigan in 



1892 as this species. Southward by 1890 it had spread over 

 New Jersey and reached Philadelphia where it was very common 

 (Liebeck). The year 1S94 gave records from Maryland, 

 Michigan, W. Virginia (Hopkins), and Indiana. C. T. Brues 

 took it in 1897-98 along the shore of Lake Michigan at Chicago, 

 it being one of the very common species at that time. Folsom 

 records its first appearance at Urbana as 1903 and it was 

 common there in 1904. In Pennsylvania, Stewart and Rath- 

 von report it in 1891 and it apparently soon afterward reached 

 Maryland and the District of Columbia, since in 1894 it was 

 seriously damaging clover in western Maryland. Lintner in 



1893 received specimens from a correspondent at Hillsboro, 

 Va., where it was then troublesome. Franklin Sherman, Jr., 

 writes me that he collected specimens in North Carolina in 

 1901; there are specimens in the Brues collection from Austin, 

 Texas, 1901-2. I have specimens collected at Memphis, 



