The Asparagus Beetle. 339 



have been allowed to run up. The injury, I have no doubt, 

 which a young seedling bed would receive from its attacks 

 would have the effect of greatly weakening the roots ; for 

 the whole of the leaves (as we may term the slender elegant 

 spray), being entirely consumed, the plants would necessarily 

 lose a great deal of nourishment, and be less able, in the follow- 

 ing season, to throw up good heads, which, of course, it is the 

 cultivator's chief interest to obtain. 



It is not, however, by the insect in the perfect state that the 

 mischief is caused : at this period of its existence, its whole 

 object is to continue its kind, and eating is no longer a matter 

 of necessity : it is by the larva, or grub, that the injury is 

 produced. 



The females deposit their eggs upon the young and tender 

 stems, seeming to prefer those which support the flowers. These 

 eggs are of a long oval form, and of a large size compared with 

 the insect ; hence, it is probable that a single female does not 

 deposit above eight or ten eggs. They are affixed to the stem 

 at one end, by means of a black viscid secretion, which dyes the 

 surrounding part of the stem for a short distance. I have often 

 observed two eggs placed together; one being attached at the 

 extremity of the other. Their colour is dirty slate. In a short 

 time, the larvae are produced. In this state, they are quite the 

 reverse of their parents, and, instead of exhibiting a variety of 

 colours and elegant markings, they are of a disgusting form and 

 a dirty slaty green colour, almost black ; and, when disturbed, 

 the emit a considerable quantity of thick black fluid. The body 

 is, as usual, composed of 13 segments, the first of which, or 

 the head, is black and supplied with strong 4-toothed jaws, and 

 short antennae ; the next segment, or the prothorax, is marked 

 with two shining black spots, of a leathery texture, and is fur- 

 nished on the under side with two short, articulated, black legs, as 

 is also each of the two following segments : the remaining segments 

 are gradually thickened. The general consistence of the body 

 is fleshy, the external integument being thin and membrana- 

 ceous; the segments of the abdominal part of the body are 

 furnished with fleshy tubercles, which are employed as legs. 

 The body is also armed at its extremity with a similar pair of 

 these fleshy proleg-like tubercles. Bouche [NatwgescJi. der In- 

 sekt., u ivih. -x.. f. 38.) has represented this larva: the figure, 

 however, is destitute of thoracic legs, and the body is represented 

 as clothed with bristles. This is incorrect, there being no hairs 

 upon the rings of the body ; which, both in general appearance 

 and colour, reminds more of the trunk of the elephant than any 

 thing else. It is the habit of the larva of the typical species of 

 this genus (Crioceris merdigera Lhin.) to form a covering for 

 itself of its own excrement (in the manner described by Reau- 



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