114 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



winter. Suppose that from one such infested bar- 

 rel there are generatecloue hundred female Apple- 

 worm Moths, and that each Motli, on escaping 

 into the orchard, lays only two hundred eggs, 

 thereby spoiling two hundred apples ; it follows 

 that twenty thousand apples, or, allowing a 

 hundred apples to the bushel, two hundred 

 bushels of fruit may be ruined by the product of 

 a single old barrel, worth perhaps some <juarter 

 of a dollar! 



We would, therefore, earnestly impress upon 

 our fruit-growing readers the practical import- 

 ance of examining all barrels or other vessels, in 

 which apples have been stored through the 

 winter; and if, as will generally be the case, 

 they are found to be swarming witli Apple- 

 worm cocoons in the spring, let them be either 

 burnt up at once, or thoroughly scalded by im- 

 mersing them ill boiling liot wafer for ;i few 

 niinutes. 



THE ASPARAUUS BEETLE 



There is scarcely a vegetable iiiixii in our 

 gardens that is not preyed upon by one or more 

 grubs, caterpillars, or maggots, so that, when 

 we oat it, we have positi\ely no security that we 

 are not mingling aninuil with vegetable food. 

 Two distinct kinds of maggol-i, proiliicing two 

 distinct species of tw<>wiiig<(l l"l\. Imirow in 

 the bulb of the onion. Scaliby potatoes are 

 inhabited by a more eloiigalcd maggot, produc- 

 ing a very difl'ercut kind of two-winged Fly, 

 and also by several minute species of ^[ites. 

 Turnips, beets, carrots and parsnips are each 

 attacked by peculiar larvaj. And as to the mul- 

 tifarious varieties of the cabbage, not only arc 

 they often grievously infested b.\- the Cabbage 

 T'lant-louse— a species which has been intro- 

 duced from Europe into this country — Ijut also 

 by an imported caterpillar producing a small 

 moth, and by several indigenous rateii)illars 

 producing mucli larger moths, some of which 

 caterpillars, wlien full-grown, iirc over one inch 

 long. 



Up to about eight years ago asparagus formed 

 a notable exception to the above general rule. 

 There was no grub caterpillar or maggot peculiar 

 to America that would touch it, and although 

 there are several such that have long been 

 known in Europe, none of them had hitherto 

 found their way into tliis country. About 18C0, 

 however, the Asparagus Beetle was accidentally 

 introduced into Long Island, X. Y., from the 

 other side of the Atlantic ; and in a very few 

 years it had increased and multiplied, among 



•) are 



the extensive asparagus plantations in that 

 locality, to such an extent, as to occasion a dead 

 loss of some fifty thousand dollars in a single 

 county. In the year 18G8, as we have ascer- 

 tained through specimens of this beetle obligingly 

 furnished to us by A. Hance & Son, nurserymen, 

 of Monmouth county, N. J., it had already 

 crossed over from Long Island on to the adjoin- 

 ing main land; and thence there can be little 

 doubt that it will gradually overspread the 

 whole country, working westward at the prob- 

 able rate of some twenty miles a year. 



That our readers may recognize at once this 

 pernicious insect as soon as they see it, we an- 

 nex figures of it in its various stages. The per- 

 (i"ift »*■] feet beetle (Fig. 94, 



\\y_ ff)isofadeepblue- 



, black color, with 



jix the thorax brick- 

 ///Q red, and some 



^ markings of very 



variable shape and 

 size on the side of 

 its wing-cases. The 

 c. eggs (6 and mag- 



lly attached to the leaves 

 of the growing asparagus, and are of a blackish 

 color. The larva (d and e, and magnilied at/) 

 is of a dull ash color, with a black head and six 

 black legs placed at the forward end of the 

 body, the tail end being used as a pro-leg in 

 walking, as with the larvae of most of the allied 

 beetles. The species passes the winter under 

 loose bark and in other such sheltered situations, 

 in the perfect or beetle state: and in May, or 

 soon after the season for cutting the asparagus 

 for table use has commenced, it comes forth 

 from its winter quarters and lays the fii-st brood 

 of eggs. These hatch out in about eight days, 

 and by the middle of June the first brood of 

 laiwie arc large enough to be noticed, eating the 

 bark of!" the more tender part of the young stems 

 first, and in default of this consuming the 

 tougher and hai'der bark ofl" the main stalks. 

 About the end of June they descend to the 

 ground, and either going under the surface of 

 the ei'.rth or hiding under any rubbish that may 

 have accumulated there, form slight cocoon? 

 and pass into the pupa stale. From these pupa^ 

 there bursts forth the same season a second 

 brood of beetles which lays its eggs as before, 

 and produces about the middle of August a 

 second brood of larv.-e or grubs, whence in the 

 same manner as before there comes forth in 

 September the brood of beetles which is destined 

 to pass the winter in the beetle state and repro- 

 duce the species in the following spring. Thus. 



