FARMEES BULLETIN 837. 



Fig. C— The bordered soldier-bug an enemy of the common asparagus 

 beetle: a, Adult bug; 6, young bug, or nymph. Much enlarged. 



soldier-bug,^ and the bordered soldier-bug ^ (fig. 6) are also active 

 destroyers of asparagus-beetle larvae, which they attack by impaling 

 them upon their long beaks and sucking out their juices. Certain 

 species of wasps ^ and small dragonflies * also prey upon the aspar- 

 agus-beetle grubs. These insects hover about the infested plants 



until a larva 

 is seen, when 

 they pounce up- 

 on it and cany it 

 away. The eggs 

 of this asparagus 

 beetle are at- 

 tacked by a mui- 

 ute wasplike 

 four-winged fly^ 

 (fig.7)wliichlays 

 its eggs in those 

 of the beetle. 

 Strangely 

 enough, the p ara- 

 sitized cggshatch 

 and the larvae emerging from thembecome full grown, but are destroyed 

 by the parasite larvae after the beetle larvtie have entered the soil 

 and formed their pupal cells, but before they have changed to pupoe. 

 Asparagus beetles are very susceptible to sudden changes of 

 temperature, and it has been noticed frequently at Concord, Mass., 

 that immense numbers 

 of the hibernating bee- 

 tles are killed in winter 

 during severely cold 

 spells f ollowmg ' 'open' ' 

 weather, millions of 

 their dead bodies some- 

 times being found un- 

 der bark and in other 

 liidhig places. 



The intense heat 

 that prevailed at times 

 during the summer of 

 1896, especially during 

 the first two weeks of August, though conducive to the undue 

 propagation of some forms of insects, had the opposite effect upon 

 certain species that feed in the larva condition freely exposed upon 



^...:.., 



Fig. 7.— Tdra^tkhus asparagi, a parasite of the common asparagus 

 beetle: Adult. Greatly enlarged. (F.A.Johnston.) 



• Podisus macidiveiUris Say. 

 '' Stiretrus anchorago Fab. 



' PoUstes paUipes Lcp. 

 •• Ischnura posita (Hagen). 



' Tdrastichus asjiaragi Cwfd. 



