THE ASPARAGUS BEETLE: ITS SPREAD AXD CHECK. 



241 



investigating the habits of tlie insect, and from the careful observations 

 made, gave a very interesting paper upon it, embracing also the history 

 and culture of the asparagus plant, in his Eighth Annual Report on 

 the Insects of New York, published in the Transactions of the State 

 Agricultural Society, vol. xxii, 1863. A previous publication, describ- 

 ing the insect in its different stages, had been made by Dr. Fitch, at a 

 somewhat earlier date, in the Country Gentleman, as above cited. In 

 this year it had already spread along the north shore of Long Island for 

 a distance of forty miles. It threatened to ruin every j^lantation in 

 Queens county, at a prospective loss estimated at 150,000 annually. 



A Parasitic Attack, 

 In the year 1863, when to all appearance the cultivation of aspara- 

 gus was arrested, relief came through the attack of " a small, shining- 

 black parasitic fly," belonging to the family of ChalcicUdcB or Procto- 

 trupidm, which is supposed to have laid its eggs in the eggs of the 

 asparagus beetle or in the larva, and by the destruction of large num- 

 bers of them, materially to have checked the depredations of the in- 

 sect {American Entomologist, i, 115). I do not find any particular ac- 

 count of tliis valuable parasite, which seems, very strangely, not to 

 have received scientific attention. 



Its Extension into New Jersey. 

 For some following years, less was heard of these injuries on Long 

 Island, which may in great part have resulted from an experience 

 gained in methods for their prevention.* In the year 1868 it was no- 

 ticed in New Jersey, where it has since 

 proved very destructive. In the second 

 year of its operations at Burlington, N. J., 

 one-fourth of the asparagus crop was de- 

 stroyed ; in several instances, entire beds 

 were ruined in the third year of the attack- 

 It has also been very destructive in Essex 

 county, in the same State. The present 

 Fig. 70.— The Asparagus beetle, year comj^laiiits liavo reached me, from 



Crioceuis asparagi, its cffgs and ,., , -kt t e li l itc ii. 



larva in natural size; also, the Camden, N. J., of the great difficulty en- 

 th^^eedifJi:?erYtXU"tch.)"* Countered in efiforts to check the increase 



{Country Gentleman, for April 14, 1881). 



Its Description. 

 Tlie egg. — The eggs of the beetle are of the size and form shown at 

 the middle of Fig. 70. At the right, they are given in enlargement. 



*In 1878, it was reported as very serious in Suffolk county, in the vicinity of Quogue, 

 near the eastern end of Long Island (iie/^ori of the Entomologist of the Department of Agri- 

 culture for the j-ear 1878, p. 3). 



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