THE ASPARAGUS BEETLES AND THEIR CONTROL. 



CONTENTS. 



Page, i Page. 



The common asparagus beetle 3 I The common asparagus beetle— Continued. 



Cicncral appearance of beetle and charac- 

 ter of injury to plants 3 



Distribution and means of spread 5 



Habits and development 6 



'! he life cycle 6 



Natural checks 7 



Methods of control 9_ 



The twelve-spotted asparagus beetle 11 



Introduction and spread in the United 



States 11 



Description, seasonal history, and habiis. 12 



Remedies 13 



ALTHOUGH introduced into this country from Europe by the 

 L early settlers, asparagus is believed to have been cultivated 

 here for two centuries before it was troubled by insects. Sev- 

 eral species of native American insects, it is true, feed upon this 

 plant, but none, so far as we know, has become suihciently attached 

 to it to cause serious injury. Few of our edible plants, indeed, down 

 to the time of the Civil War have enjoyed such immmiity from insect 

 ravages. 



Li the Old World, however, two insects called asparagus beetles 

 have been known as important enemies of this crop since early times. 

 One of these, known as the common asparagus beetle, was introduced 

 into Greater New York about I860, while the other, the twelve-spotted 

 asparagus beetle, sometimes called the red asparagus beetle, to dis- 

 tinguish it from the blue or common species, was first discovered in this 

 country on asparagus in 1881 near Baltimore, Md. Both of these are 

 now firmly established and widely distributed in this country and 

 require special measures for their control. 



THE COMMON ASPARAGUS BEETLE.i 



GENERAL APPEARANCE OF BEETLE AND CHARACTER OF INJURY TO PLANTS. 



The adult of the common asparagus beetle is a beautiful insect, 

 slender and graceful, blue black with red thorax and lemon-yellow 

 and dark-blue wing-covers havmg a reddish border. A common 

 form about the District of Columbia is illustrated in figure 1, a. 

 Farther north the prevailing form is darker, the lighter coloring some- 

 times showing only as a reddish border and six small submarginal 



1 Crioceris asparagi L.; order Cioleoptera, family Chrysonielidae. 

 99162°— Bull. 837—17 3 



