NOTES ON THE ASPARAGUS BEETLES. 



By F. H. Chittenden, 

 Entomologist in Charge of Breeding Experiments. 



Since the publication of the writer's general article on the asparagus 

 beetles in the Yearbook for 1896,^* many notes on their distribution and 

 destructive occurrences have been published. Some additional data 

 were published soon afterward.* The following brief review of the 

 subject is submitted as a sequel to those articles and a sunmiary of the 

 further dissemination of these pests in a decade of years. 



THE COMMON ASPARAGUS BEETLE. 



( Crioceris asparagi L. ) 



The predictions made by the writer in regard to the future distri- 

 bution of the common asparagus beetle have been completely fulfilled 

 as regards its western spread, although it has not as yet been reported 

 as far south as Kentucky. Mr, J. G. Sanders, however, infornis the 

 writer that it has been established about Columbus, Ohio, since 1903, 

 and Mr. Charles Dur}', Cincinnati, Ohio, reported this species at Indian 

 Hill, about 7 miles from that city, on asparagus beds in 1905. Hundreds 

 were observed during June. The customary injury was noticed, and 

 plants appeared as though scorched with fire. In 1897 the species 

 was observed to have continued its spread westward along Lake Erie, 

 and was then known in nine counties in northeastern Ohio. The fol- 

 lowing year it was first noticed in western Virginia. In 1898 also it 

 was reported to have been present at Benton Harbor, Mich., since 

 1896. By 1899 it had made its appearance in Canada, accompanied b}'^ 

 the twelve-spotted species, in the Niagara River region. 



It is interesting to note that in 1900 the present species, which had 

 been rapidly increasing its range in the East, including New York, 

 after occurring in injurious numbers in Maryland, was apparently 

 totally destroyed by the hot spell of July and August that occurred 

 in the District of Columbia and neighboring parts of Virginia and 

 Maryland; whence the conclusion that this condition prevailed to a 

 considerably larger extent than came to the writer's personal notice. 

 In 1901 Dr. James Fletcher noted that the species, though present in 

 the Niagara district, had not increased to the extent that was feared. 

 It had spread to Guelph, Ontario, that year, and did much damage 

 about St. Catharines. In 1904 its occurrence around Toronto was 



a Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. f. 1896 (1897), pp. 341-352. 

 6 Bui. 10, n. s., Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agric, pp. 54-59, 1898. 

 6 



