Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



been reported from Panama, not far from the border of Costa Rica, 

 Guatemala, Lower California and California along the coast near San 

 Francisco and in the Sacramento vallev. On the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts, it has been reported from Panama, Tabasco and Mexico at 

 Orizaba and in the State of Tamaulipas, which is located on the coast 

 south of the mouth of the Rio Grande. Along the Atlantic it is known 

 from Florida to Cape Breton. It seems to me that a much more rea- 

 sonable theory would be to suppose that the species originated either 

 in Panama or in either the valley of the Atrato or the Magdalena 

 River, of the United States of Columbia or perhaps along the Vene- 

 zuelan coast in South America (and it is here that I fully expect a 

 much closer ally than now known to be discovered), and that it has 

 simply followed the moderately low lands, which would of necessity 

 be located in rather close proximity to the coast, until it reached east- 

 ern Texas and Louisiana, where it not only continued to work its way 

 eastward on account of its maritime nature, but also pushed its way 

 northward under the inducements offered by a moderately level, 

 slightly elevated country, producing a grass flora upon which it could 

 readily sustain itself, thus giving it a northern and eastern, but at no 

 time a western spread. The very narrow limit of the land in Panama 

 would compel the insect to confine itself rather closely to the sea shore, 

 but a little farther north, it seems in a slight degree to break away 

 from the immediate coast, and inhabit the low lands adjacent, so that 

 it would, even this near its native home, appear to have become a 

 semi-maritime species, just as I would designate it at present, and 

 which would account for its distribution and habits as we now find 

 them.* 



* In Guatemala, most of the localities where the chinch bug has been found 

 lie near the coast. But two are, however, far inland, Pansos being nearly ioo 

 miles from the east coast, while San Geronimo is almost equi-distant from the 

 east and west coasts, and fully twice as far inland as Pansos. As indicating 

 something of the nature of the topography of Guatemala, I have taken the fol- 

 lowing extracts from "Guatemala, Land of the Quetzal," by Mr. Wm. T. Brig- 

 ham, (p. 4 ) A traveler crossing this territory from ocean to ocean would 

 sometimes follow the river valleys, then climb ridges, again traverse a plain, cross 

 a valley, ride along another mountain range, compressing a volcano, and finally 

 descend abruptly to the Pacific, (p. 260.) The tides here (on the Atlantic coast) 

 are less than a foot. (p. 323.) ... he will readily divide the vegetation 

 into four tolerably distinct regions; these are the shore and river bottoms, the 

 upland and the arid plain. On all the low cayos that are almost awash with 

 every wave, and on the low margin of the main land, extending up the wide 

 rivers for miles, are the mangroves, (p. 369.) On the ridges Paspalum distichum 

 grows naturally, on the lowlands and river valleys grass must be planted, (p. 

 73, speaking of the river below Pansos) There was foam on the water, but we 

 heard no waterfalls, — and indeed the flat nature of the country made falls, cas- 

 cades, or even rapids, impossible, (p. 5.) In the oceanic valleys and along the 

 coast are the only lowlands in Central America. 



