ASPAKAGUS. 129 



INSECTS. 



Asparagus is subject to injury from the following 



insects : 



First The asparagus -beetle (Crioceris asparagi.) 

 Second The zebra-caterpillar (Mamestra picta.) 

 Third The smeared-dagger (Acronycta oUinita.) A 



small ash-gray moth, the caterpillar of which sometimes 



feeds upon the plant. 



The asparagus-beetle was introduced from Europe 



about 1860. In a few years it became so numerous and 



terribly destructive, that, in 1862, some farmers on 



Fig. 18. ASPARAGUS BEETLE (Crioceris asparagi). 

 Beetle, Larva, Egg. The lines show the natural length of Egg and Beetle. 



Long Island plowed up their asparagus plantations, 

 the crops having been ruined. All remedies failed, 

 and it was thought the cultivation of asparagus would 

 have to be abandoned on the Island, where the best in the 

 country is grown. But in 1863, there appeared a deliverer 

 in the form of a little black shining chalcid fly, which 

 very soon checked t^ie increase of the insects. The larvae 

 eat off the bark of the stalks, preferring, and commenc- 

 ing with, the tender shoots. The beetle has two broods 

 in the season, and winters in the perfect state. I have 

 never seen this insect at the South, but if it has not yet 

 reached us, the probabilities are that it will do so in time. 

 The other insects named commit no serious injury. 



