178 The American Naturalist. [February, 
restricted to that portion east of the Mississippi River and north of 
the thirty-ninth or fortieth parallel. I have lately become possessed 
of additional data regarding its range, which I herewith record, 
adding also a number of already published but scattered notes—the 
whole giving a tolerably complete idea of the American distribution 
of the insect. 
“When known, the year of first capture is also given, though often 
we can only tell from the date of a given reference that the species was 
known in that locality previous to that time ; hence no exact generali- 
zations as to the path or rate of westward progression can be based 
thereon. A considerable portion of the matter, however, has been 
gathered directly by correspondence with entomologists in various 
parts of the country, who have kindly responded to my requests for 
information, and whose names will be found appended thereto. 
“In a recent number of Insect Life it is stated by Messrs. Riley 
and Howard that it was first recorded from the United States in 
1873. Not being able to find the reference, I wrote to Mr. Samuel 
Henshaw, asking help of his unsurpassed knowledge of the bibliogra- 
phy of American beetles. He kindly replied as follows: 
“<The Leconte collection contains a specimen of ovatus, No. 1952 of 
his manuscript catalogue. Against this number Dr. Leconte wrote 
“ pear tree, Harris, Mass.” As Harris collected all his beetles between 
1820 and 1852, ovatus must have been here (Massachusetts) as early 
as 1852. The late Mr. J. P. Atkinson collected the species at Cam- 
bridge Sept. 2d, 1865, and there is a specimen in the Leconte collec- 
tion taken by Mr. Schwarz in Cambridge, March 20th, 1874. My 
earliest specimen is labeled Wyoming, Mass., May 30th, 1874.’ 
“Tt was thus evidently established in Massachusetts by this time; a 
year later it was at Allegheny, in Pennsylvania, as Dr. Hamilton 
writes me from that place. ‘I took this beetle in a cemetery here 
in 1875, and it was then apparently abundant. A couple of years 
afterward it was excessively so, in the same cemetery, but is now 
(1894) much less common than formerly.” By 1878 it had reached 
Detroit, Michigan, when it is recorded in the Hubbard and Schwarz 
List. Mr. Henshaw had it from Hanover, New Hampshire, as early 
as 1880. In 1884 it came under Dr. Lintner’s notice in New York, 
but Mr. Reinecke found it at Buffalo at least two. years earlier. About 
1882 or 1883 it figured as a strawberry pest in Southern Michigan, 
and the year 1884 brings a record from Ottawa, Canada, by Mr. Har- | 
rington. Not later than 1886 I took it at Iowa City, the record — 
standing for years as the most westerly range known for the species. 
