114 



THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



winter. Suppose that from one sucli infested bar- 

 rel there are generated one hundred female Apple- 

 worm Moths, and that each Moth, on escaping 

 into the orchard, laj-s 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 siugle old barrel, worth perhaps some quarter 

 of a dollar ! 



We would, therefore, earnestly impress vipon 

 our fruit-growing readers the isractical import- 

 ance of examining all barrels or other vessels, in 

 whicli apples liave been stored through the 

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

 they are found to be swarming with Apple- 

 worm cocoons in the spring, let them be either 

 burnt up at once, or thoroughly scalded by im- 

 mersing them iu boiling hot water for a few 

 minutes. 



THE ASPARAGUS BEETLE 



(Crioceris a&paraiji, Linn.) 



There is scarcely a vegetable raised in our 

 gardens that is not preyed upon by one or more 

 grubs, caterpillars, or maggots, so that, when 

 we eat it, we have positively no security that we 

 are not mingling animal with vegetable food. 

 Two distinct kinds of maggots, producing two 

 distinct species of two-winged Fly, burrow in 

 the bulb of the onion. Scabby potatoes are 

 inhabited by a more elongated maggot, produc- 

 ing a very difierent kind of two-winged Fly, 

 and also by several minute species of Mites. 

 Turnips,' beets, carrots and parsnips are cacli 

 attacked by peculiar larva?. And as to the mul- 

 tifarious varieties of the cabbage, not only arc 

 they often grievously infested by the Cabbage 

 riant-lousc — a species which has been intro- 

 duced from Europe into this country — but also 

 by an imported caterpillar prcdncing a small 

 moth, and by several indigenous rateriiillars 

 producing mucli larger moths, some of whicli 

 caterpillars, wlien full-grown, arc 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 iu Europe, none of them had hitherto 

 found their way into this country. About 1860, 

 however, the Asparagus Beetle was accidentally 

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

 other side of the Atlantic ; and in a very few 

 years it had increased and multiplied, among 



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 1868, as we have ascer- 

 tained through specimens of thisbeetle obligingly 

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

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

 crossed over from Long Island on to the adjoin- 

 ing main laud ; and thence there can be little 

 doubt that it will gradually overspread tlie 

 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- 

 fect beetle (Fig. 9i, 

 «) is of a deep blue- 

 black color, with 

 the thorax brick- 

 red, and some 

 markings of very 

 variable shape and 

 size on the side of 

 its wing-cases. The 

 Aspaviigns Beetle, etc. eggs (6 and mag- 



nified at c) arc generally attached to the leaves 

 of the growing asparagus, and are of a blackish 

 color. TJie larva {d and e, and magnified at/) 

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

 black legs ijlaced at the forward end of the 

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

 walking, as with the larvro of most of the allied 

 beetles. The species passes the Avinter 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 lias commeuced, it comes forth 

 from its winter quarters and lays the first brood 

 of eggs. These hatch out in about eight days, 

 and by the middle of June the first brood of 

 laiwaj arc large enough to be noliccd, eating the 

 bark oft' 1 lie more tender part of the young stems 

 first, and in default of this consuming the 

 tougher and harder bark oil' the main stalks. 

 About the end of June they descend to the 

 ground, and either going under the surface of 

 the earth or hiding under any rubbisli that may 

 have accumulated there, form slight cocoons 

 and pass into the pupa state. From these piipas 

 there bursts forth the same season a second 

 brood of beetles which lays its eggs as before, 

 and produces about tiie middle of August a 

 second brood of larva; 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 iu the beetle state and repro- 

 duce the species in the following spring. Thus, 



