' Agric., pp. 5-10, 1907. "aha 
SB 
ae 8 10. 102. Issued May 20, 1908. 
ENT nited States Department of Agriculture, 
BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 
L. O. HOWARD, Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 
THE ASPARAGUS BEETLES. 
By F. H. CHITTENDEN, 
Entomologist in Charge of Breeding Experiments. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
Asparagus was introduced into this country with the early settlers 
from Europe, and is credited 
with having been cultivated 
here for two hundred years 
before being troubled with 
insects. 
Several species of native 
American insects have been 
observed to feed upon this 
plant, but none, so far as we 
know, has become sufficiently 
attached to it to cause se- 
rious injury. Few of our 
edible plants, in short, down 
to the time of the civil war 
have enjoyed such immunity 
from the ravages of insects. 
In the Old World two in- 
sects, called asparagus bee- 
tles, have been known as 
enemies of the asparagus 
since early times. In the 
year 1862 one of these insects, 
the common asparagus beetle 
(Crioceris asparagi VL.) was 
the occasion of considerable 
seems 
Fic. 1.—Spray of asparagus, with common as- 
alarm on asparagus farms in paragus beetle in its different stages; aspara- 
Queens County, N. Yc: where gus tip at right, showing eggs and injury. 
Z z Natural size (author's illustration). 
it threatened to destroy this, 
one of the most valuable crops grown on Long Island. Subsequent 
2@QOther accounts of these insects have been published in earlier years, as 
follows: Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. f. 1896 (1897), pp. 341-352; Bul. 10, Div. 
Ent., U. S. Dept. Agric., pp. 54-59, 1898; Bul. 66, Pt. I, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. 
Y vTend (iyiey 
39342—Cir. 102—08 ia 
