35 
are also accused of gnawing young shoots beneath the surface, causing 
them to become woody and crooked in growth. 
The beetle illustrated by fig. 14 is a most beautiful creature, slender 
and graceful in form, blue-black in color, with red thorax, and lemon- 
yellow and dark-blue elytra or wing covers, with reddish border. Its 
length is a trifle less than one-fourth of an inch. 
From the scene of its first colonization in Queens County the insect 
migrated to the other truck-growing portions of Long Island. It soon 
reached southern Connecticut, and has now extended its range north- 
ward through that State and Massachusetts to the State line of New 
Hampshire. Southward it has traveled through New Jersey, where it 
was first noticed in 1868, to southern Virginia. At the present time it 
is known to be well established in the principal asparagus-growing sec- 
tions of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and Mary- 
land. In Pennsylvania it is present in the southeastern portion of the 
State near the Delaware River, and in Virginia jt extends southward 
along the banks of the Potomac. In New York State it occupies, 

Fie. 14.—Common asparagus beetle: a, beetle; b, egg; c, newly hatched larva; d, full-grown larva; 
e, pupa—all enlarged (from Chittenden, Yearbook of U. 8. Department of Agriculture, 1896). 
besides Long Island, a narrow strip along the Hudson to a point about 
20 miles north of Albany, and it has very recently made its appearance 
in four counties in the northwestern section of the State. In Ohio 
it has found its way to four counties between Cleveland and the Penn- 
sylvania State line. 
The question of distribution is an important one, as this species is 
rapidly extending its range. In a very few years we may expect its 
spread to other portions of the States in which it is now local, and 
later it will naturally move westward to Indiana and other States west 
and south of there. 
The insect passes the winter in the beetle state under convenient 
shelter, and toward the end of April or early in May, according to 
locality, or at the season for cutting the asparagus for market, issues 
from its hibernating quarters and lays its eggs for the first brood. 
The eggs are deposited endwise upon the stem or foliage and in early 
spring on the developing stalks, usually in rows of from two to six cr 
more. 
