10 
depredations of the hibernated beetles in early spring upon the young 
and edible asparagus shoots. Later generations attack the foliage, 
living, for at least a considerable portion of the larval stage, within 
the ripening berries. 
INTRODUCTION AND SPREAD IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The presence of this insect in America, as has been stated, was first 
discovered in 1881, and in the vicinity of Baltimore, Md. This 
beetle was noticed in considerable numbers from the first, showing 
that it had probably been introduced several years earher. At that 
time it was quite local, oceurring only at the mouth of the Furnace 
Branch of the Patapsco River at a point a few miles south of Balti- 
more. It was then seen only on volunteer asparagus growing on the 
salty margin of this river, although beds of cultivated asparagus were 
plentiful in the immediate vicinity. Two years later it had proved 
even more troublesome than the common asparagus beetle. 
Assuming Baltimore to have been the original center of distribu- 
tion, the twelve-spotted asparagus beetle has been traced southward 
through Anne Arundel and Prince George counties to the District of 
Columbia, where it was detected five years from the time of its first 
discovery. 
In 1892 it was reported to have appeared in considerable numbers 
on asparagus stalks that had been cut down upon a farm in Carroll 
County, Md. The same year its appearance was announced in Glou- 
cester County, in southern New Jersey, and the following year in 
Cumberland and Camden counties of the same State. To have 
reached these points the insect, obviously, had traversed the inter- 
vening territory in Maryland, the northern half of Delaware, and 
Salem County, N. J. It was also found to have reached Virginia, 
near Washington. In 1894 it had extended northward to Burlington 
County, N. J., and westward to Philadelphia County, in Pennsyl- 
rania. The same year it was detected in Queen Anne County, Md., 
and near Rochester, N. Y. Two years later it established itself in 
Charles County, Md., and had penetrated as far south in Virginia 
as Westmoreland County. 
In May, 1896, a serious invasion was reported in Prince George 
County, Md., where the beetles attacked the young shoots, gnawing 
off the heads as soon as they showed above ground, thus entirely unfit- 
ting the crop for market. 
Nearly every year since, it has been reported in new localities in the 
United States and Canada until now it is well distributed westward 
and northward. In 1898 it had become generally distributed in New 
Jersey “ south of the shale from the Atlantic coast to the Delaware.” 
Next year it was recorded in twelve counties in New York as far west 
(Cir. 102] 
