Twelfth JIeport op the State Entomologist 249 



WicKHAM : in Canad. Entomol., xxviii, 1896, p. 74 (mention). 

 Chittenden: in Year Book U. S. Dept. Agricul. for 1896, 1897, pp. 



349-352, fig. 89 (general account). 

 Skinner: in Entomolog. News, viii, 1897, p. 230 (in localities in Pa). 



The common asparagus beetle, Crioceris asparagi (Linn.), has long 

 been known to most growers of this plant on and near the Atlantic coast 

 in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, while recently it has extended 

 its range inwardly, and has appeared in various localities in eastern, 

 central and western New York, and has entered Ohio. This destructive 

 pest is, however, not the only asparagus beetle now established within 

 the State of New York. 



Twelve-spotted Asparagus Beetle in Monroe County. 



This near relative of the common asparagus beetle was found infesting 

 an asparagus bed in Brighton, Monroe county, N. Y., in comparatively 

 small numbers in 1893 on the farm of Mr. Silas J. Robbins. Early in 

 May of the following year a few of the 12-spotted variety were to be seen 

 among the hundreds of the more common species. The latter part of 

 the month, however, Mr. Robbins wrote: "Yesterday the asparagus 

 beetles came out in full force. In many places quite as many red ones 

 \i2-punctata\ as of the common kind." The appearance of the insect in 

 such large numbers the second year of its observed presence would indi- 

 cate that the climatic conditions of its newly adopted home were very 

 favorable to its multiplication. 



This insect has evidently prospered in this new locality as Mr. C. J. 

 Chism, of Brighton, informed me in Sept., 1897, that it was very injurious, 

 more so than C. asparagi. It had spread from the farm of Mr. Robbins 

 to others in the vicinity and was regarded as a serious pest. The beetle 

 was said to eat into the growing shoots more than does the common 

 species, and thus render them unfit for market. 



Description of the Insect. 



The beetles of this species are easily distinguished from the more com- 

 mon form. They may be recognized by the twelve black spots on their 

 orange-red elytra. The thorax is a deeper orange red. The eyes, antennae, 

 tips of the femora and tibiae, the tarsi, and portions of the ventral 

 surface are black. In form it is a stouter and larger insect than asparagi. 

 At a little distance, they resemble somewhat closely, it is said, the ripen- 

 ing asparagus berry. 



