j^899] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 143 



except along the Florida coast, there are among these many indi- 

 viduals possessing fully developed wings, which, so far as we know, 

 interbreed with the short winged form. In Ohio both forms are 

 found pairing together, but whether the westei'n raacropterous 

 form will interbreed with the eastern brachypterous form has not 

 yet been deteimined. There is a bare possibility that what we have 

 been considering a single species may in reality prove to be com- 

 posed of two, but I hardly think this the case, and am more inclined 

 to consider the bi-achpyterous form in an evolutionary period, not 

 far enough advanced as yet to be considered a distinct species If 

 Columbus had appeared several hundred years later, and the coun- 

 try along the Atlantic coast remained longer in a condition unin- 

 fluenced by the white man. we might then found two distinct 

 species o( Bli'ssus ]u thecjuutry now iucluded within the United 

 States of America, or that portion of it laying between the Missis- 

 sippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. 



The Asparagus Beetle, Crioceris asparagi,\s also an imported 

 species, having been introduced into the eastern part of the country 

 many yeai-s ago. See map 3. It has made its way westward 

 throuiih New York to northeastern Ohio, probably over about the 

 same ground as that passed over by Hylastes and Phytonomns. 

 At present it occurs in Cuyahoga, Medina, Wayne, Stark and 

 Columbiana counties, these marking the exti-eme front of its ad- 

 van(;e in the State It seems to be progressing slowly westward, 

 and even less rapidly south and south west wai*d.* 



Judging from its relative abundance, and also from its recent ap- 

 pearance in several localities, it would seem that Thyriodopteryx 

 ephemercefornus spread northward into Ohio long ago, first estab- 

 lishing itself in the southwestern part of the State See map 2. It 

 has been known about Cincinnati for many years and is now more 

 abundant there than elsewhere in Ohio; in fact it has only been 

 found about Columbus within the last five or six years, and the 

 same is ti'ue of Springfield and other points in that vicinity. At 

 present Washington county appears to be about its eastern limit of 

 diffusion in this State, the border line probably trending north- 

 westward to Franklin county, thence, rarely, to Mercer county, 

 with a single appearance of the species at Grand Rapids, Wood 

 county, in nearly the extreme northwestern part of the State, and 

 within 25 miles of Lake Erie. 



In the foregoing I have given as correct an idea of the ti'end of 

 diffusion in several of our species of insects as the data at hand will 

 •permit. It is not expected that this is absolutely correct in all of 



*NoTE.— The outbreak of this species In southwestern Michigan can not be 

 considered as belonging to the westward bound Ohio invasion, as the most pre- 

 slstent searching over much of that portion of the latter .State west of Cleve- 

 land ha.s utterly failed to reveal a single individual. I am inclined to believe 

 that the Michigan outbreak is either the result of what Dr. Howard would term 

 a " commercial leap,'" or else to the north of Lake Erie, through Ontario, there 

 has been an Independent tide of migration, though, if the latter were the case, it 

 Bhould have been observed and reported in that section of Canada, before this 

 late day. 



