The cattail seed bug Chilacis typhae is native to Eurasia, including the British Isles to Scandinavia, France to Bulgaria and the western former Soviet Republics, south to the Caucasus and Jordan (Wheeler and Fetter 1987). It feeds on seeds in the seedheads of Typha latifolia (Wide-leaved Cattail, circumpolar native) and T. angustifolia (Narrow-leaved Cattail, Eurasian native, largely introduced to North America*. In 1997, it was collected in Polsbo, Washington, on Port Orchard Bay (1997, on T. latifolia Wheeler and Stoops 1999) Possible vectors are shipping, ornamental plants, or carhipped by road or rail.
*Pollen samples suggest some pre-European T. angustifolia populations occurred on the Atlantic Coast, but it is a 19th-20th invader in the interior and West Coast of North America.