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. 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*). On the East Coast, it was first reported in 1986 in Pennsylvania, and has been collected in Connecticut and Maine. This bug has also been found on cattails along Lake Erie in Ohio and Michigan. In 1997, it was collected in Poulsbro, Washington, on Port Orchard Bay. Possible vectors are shipping, ornamental plants, or cargo shipped by road or rail. This tiny (5 mm) seed bug is probably much more widespread than published records indicate.
*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.