3 
dark-blue wing covers having a reddish border. A common form 
about the District of Columbia is illustrated in fig. 3, a. Farther 
north the prevailing form is darker, the lighter coloring sometimes 
showing only as a reddish border and six small submarginal yellow 
spots (fig. 2,@). An extreme, light form not uncommon in the south- 
ern range of the insect is shown (fig. 2, 6) for comparison. The 
length is a trifle less than one-fourth inch. 
HISTORY OF SPREAD. 
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 
northward 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, eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
and Maryland to southern Virginia and North Carolina. 
Its distribution by natural means has been mainly by the flight of 
the beetles. Undoubtedly, also, the beetles have been transported 
from place to place by water, both up and down stream by rising 
and falling tide, as the fact that it has not until recently deviated far 
from the immediate neighborhood of the seacoast and of large water 
courses near the coast bears abundant testimony. 
Another reason for the prevalence of this species in these localities 
is that asparagus was originally a maritime plant and has escaped 
from cultivation and grown most luxuriantly in the vicinity of bodies 
of water. It is well known that it is usually upon wild plants that 
these insects first make their appearance in new localities. There is 
evidence also that their dissemination may be effected by what Doctor 
Howard has termed a “commercial jump,” either by commerce in 
propagating roots, among which the insects may be present either 
as hibernating beetles or as pup, or by the accidental carriage of 
the beetles on railroad trains or boats. 
By some such artificial means the asparagus beetle had found its 
way to northwestern New York, between Rome and Buffalo, and to 
Ohio, between Cleveland and the Pennsylvania State line. During 
1896 its course was traced along the Hudson River above Albany. 
Inquiry concerning the Ohio occurrence disclosed the fact that the 
plants in one locality were brought from New York. The presence 
of this insect in eastern Massachusetts at about the same time was in 
like manner probably due to direct shipments of roots from infested 
localities to Boston and vicinity. 
It is noticeable that up to this time its inland spread, except in the 
neighborhood of water, had been extremely limited. 
[Cir, 102] 
