142 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May 



Scioto river, the latter flowing down from the north, while the two 

 former flow upward from the south, the Kenawha, in fact, rising in 

 western North Carolina, and its upper tributaries being ioter- 

 epersed with those of the Yadkin and the James, which flow into 

 the Atlantic ocean, and also the Tennessee river, which, after a 

 winding course, empties into the Ohio river, not very far above its 

 junction with the Mississippi. 



These two occurrences, the first observed in Ohio, have puzzled 

 me greatly, and I have been wholly at a loss to account for them. 

 Even now 1 do not feel altogether sure of my ground, and state 

 what I do at pi-esent with the hope that some one else will study 

 the problem, and, it is to be hoped, throw more light upon it The 

 upper Kenawha almost pierces the Allegheny Mountains, and 

 it is a question if it does not open a gateway whereby Murgan- 

 tia may have made its way from North Carolina or Virginia, 

 through the mountain region, and followed down its valley to the 

 Ohio river, this junction being, as 1 have staled, only about fifteen 

 miles from where the insect was first reported as destructively 

 abundant. If future stiidies show that this species thus made its 

 way ov^er the mountains by way of the valley of the Big Kenawha, 

 from the Atlantic coast, where it has been known to occur for nearly 

 twenty years, it will solve my problem, for, once thickly scattered 

 along the Ohio river in this section, the insect might easily be car- 

 ried down stream and left along the river below, and especially 

 might this occur at the mouth of the Scioto. 



The chinch bug, Blissus leucopterus, has in all probability entered 

 the State from three directions. As 1 have recently writen on this 

 species, it will be only necessary to explain that, like Mui'gantia, 

 it is of southern origin, and hundreds of years ago, perhaps, spread 

 from Central America over the eastern and central portions of the 

 United States, as well as along the Pacific coast. Along both sea- 

 coasts we have what seems to be an environmentally specialized 

 form, composed largely of individuals, whose wings are so aborted 

 as to render them valueless as applied to locomotion. On the other 

 hand, except as farther stated, over the western and central portion 

 of the country, by which I mean the country laying between Ion. 

 105° and the Allegheny Mountains, we have a form, all individuals 

 of which have fully developed wings. 



The Atlantic coast form is found in northeastern Ohio, to which 

 locality it has evidently made its way, as in case of other species 

 mentioned, by way of western New York and Pennsylvania, being 

 at present confined here, so far as known to the extreme north- 

 eastern counties of the State, though there appears to have been a 

 farther spread westward,through Canada,along to the north of Lake 

 Erie, crossing into Michigan and pushing its way southward into 

 northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio, where it evidently min- 

 gles with the western macropterous form. As intimated, the Atlan- 

 tic coast form is made up of this brachypterousform largely, but, 



