Circular No. 135. issued March 25, 1911. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 

 L. O. HO^A/ARD, Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 



THE ASPARAGUS MINER.« 



{Agromyza simplex Loew.) 



By F. H. Chittenden, Sc. D., 

 In Charge of Truck Crop and Stored Product Insect Investigations. 



The stalks of asparagus are frequently attacked by insects, and in 

 recent years have been reported considerably injured by the larva or 

 maggot of a minute black fly to which the name asparagus miner has 

 been given. The larva mines beneath the epidermis of the stalk, and 

 when it has transformed to the puparium or "flaxseed" stage the thin 

 outer skin becomes more or less ruptured and the presence of the 

 insect is easily detected. It operates more abundantly near the base 



FiQ. 1.— The asparagus miner {Agromyza simplex): Fly, dorsal view at left, lateral view at right. Highly 

 magnified. (Author's illustration.) 



of the stalks and penetrates below the surface of the ground to a 

 depth of 7 or 8 inches. During the year 1906 this species attracted 

 considerable attention by its abundance in some of the principal 

 asparagus-growing sections of New England and it bids fair to become 

 a pest of considerable importance. It was first noticed on asparagus 

 in 1896, prior to which time nothing was known of its habits. It is a 

 native species and evidently restricted to asparagus as a food plant. 

 Until the year 1906 it had not been recognized as doing injury to 

 cutting beds, although attack had been observed in various sections, 



a Revised reprint from Bui. 66, n. s., Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr. 

 79779°— Cir. 135—11 1 



