No. 394-] BLISSUS IN NORTH AMERICA. 817 
and deposited in the fields along the river, or, possibly, by 
pushing through the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia and 
West Virginia from the Atlantic coast, by way of the valley of 
the Big Kenawaha River. Whether or not this was actually the 
case can only be determined by a study of the insect fauna of 
the Big Kenawaha valley. Mr. C. L. Marlatt, who has been 
making a study of the genital organs of both the maritime and 
inland races, writes me that he has not been able to find any 
material difference between them. 
The Pacific coast race has not been carefully studied, or the 
area over which brachypterous individuals occur. It would 
indeed be interesting to know whether two races from the 
same original stock would develop alike, the one on the Atlan- 
tic coast and the other on the Pacific, as it would have a bearing 
on the oft-repeated question as to whether the same species 
can be evolved in two widely separated localities. 
In summing up the testimony, then, the question put in my 
title can be answered only by saying that, with our present 
knowledge, there appear to be no differences between our 
known forms of Blissus, in North America, that cannot be 
accounted for by environmental influences. In this paper I 
have given them, tentatively, the position of separate races, 
but even that term may in future be found inapplicable. It is 
very significant that one cannot take up the study of an 
insect so common and well known as the chinch bug without 
encountering so many and such wide breaks in our knowl- 
edge of the species. 
