424 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



species, the destruction of the affected onions ami the thorough 

 plowing of affected land in the fall is of prime importance. Stored 



FIG. 304. The barred-winged onion-maggot (Chalopsis cenea Wied.): a, 

 larva, with spiracular opening highly magnified at left; b, puparium; 

 c, adult fly all enlarged. (After Riley and_Howard, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



onions which prove infested may be fumigated with carbon bisul- 

 fide to destroy the maggots and puparia and prevent the emergence 

 of the adults. 



The Asparagus-beetle * 



This is a well-known pest of asparagus in Europe and was first 

 observed in Queens County, New York, in 1862, where it threatened 

 to destroy the asparagus, one of the most valued crops of the Long 

 Island truckers. Since then it has gradually spread northward to 

 southern New Hampshire, south to North Carolina, and west to 

 Illinois and Wisconsin, and has been found at two points in Cali- 

 fornia. There seems no reason why it should not spread to 

 wherever asparagus is grown, at least in the Northern States. 



The beetle is a handsome little creature about one-quarter 

 inch long, blue-black in color, with red thorax, and dark blue 

 wing-covers, marked with lemon-yellow and with reddish borders. 

 The markings of the wing-covers are quite variable, the light color 



* Crioceris asparagi Linn. Family Chrysomelidoe. See F. H. Chittenden, 

 Yearbook, U. S, Dept. Agr., 1896, p. 341; Bulletin 66, Bureau of Ent., pp. 

 6, 93, and Circular 102, Ibid. 



