60 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I916. 



In referring to the species in my report to the department of 

 agriculture in 1912 I called attention to the rather remarka- 

 ble fact that while the species is so generally distributed and 

 abundant throughout the United States there was no published 

 record of its occurrence in this country prior to 1884, a fact 

 that very naturally suggests that it might be an introduced 

 species. This supposition is somewhat strengthened by the 

 fact that it is so common to the cultivated cereals. As stated 

 in the article. 



"Unfortunately we can not safely assume that lack of record by 

 earlier entomologists is in this case any positive proof that the species 

 was not present. While Say, Harris, Fitch, and Uhler all gave attention 

 to this group of insects, and their studies together run back to 1820, 

 they naturally could not be expected to recognize all that might have 

 occurred, even in their respective localities. However, absence of 

 records, especially in the case of such good collectors and acute observ- 

 ers, is in some degree presumptive evidence of non-occurrence in the 

 case of a species so abundant as this, and if we assume an introduction 

 of the species at some period closely prior to its first notice we must 

 recognize a rapid spread over the whole country, as it is stated by 

 Van Duzee in 1914 to 'occupy North America from Ontario and Con- 

 necticut to Alaska and California and South to Mississippi.' There is in 

 the records concerning the species in this country no sequence of dates 

 which furnishes us any basis for tracing any dispersal from some center 

 of introduction, as records for such widely separated points as Illinois, 

 Iowa, Ontario, Washington, D. C, California, and Tennessee appear all 

 within five years of its first notice."* 



. Whatever the time and mode of its appearance in this coun- 

 try it is now one of the species that must be reckoned with in 

 our agriculture and therefore a knowledge of its habits and 

 life-history is needed. While some information on these points 

 has been published the data are very meager and as stated in the 

 paper previously mentioned, "The life history of the species has 

 never been given in detail, though brief statements concerning 

 the nymphal period appear in some cases. Leonardi barely 

 mentions 'larva and nimfe' in connection with reference to the 



*Since the above was written I have seen in looking over the Harris 

 collection in the Boston Society of Natural History, a specimen of this 

 species probably collected between 1840-50 and which would indicate 

 the occurrence of the species at a much earlier date than shown by 

 published records. However, the absence of records would indicate lack 

 of abundance for the species. 



