250 Forty- fifth Report on the State Museum. 



The Asparagus Beetle. 



Information upon this insect is desired, and may very properly 

 be given at the present time, as it has but recently extended 

 its depredations into Massachusetts. It is a much easier task 

 to arrest the spread of a new insect pest, than to control its 

 ravages after it has taken full possession of its new territory and 

 perfectly adapted itself to its new conditions. It is therefore 

 important that the insect should be known, so that it may at 

 once be recognized, and prompt measures resorted to, in order 

 to check its increase. 



Description. — In general shape and size it resembles the well- 

 known cucumber-beetle, Diabrotica vittata, but it is somewhat 

 longer, being about a quarter of an inch long, and its body is 

 more elongated from its parallel sides. It Las a black head, and 

 a finely punctured tawny-red thorax, marked with two black 

 spots upon its crown. The lemon-colored, punctured wing-covers 

 are usually broken into three spots each, by a black stripe along 

 their junction, a black transverse band a little beyond their 

 middle, and an interrupted one near their tips; outwardly they 

 are bordered with orange. The body beneath and the legs are 

 shining black. The elytral markings as above given, suggest 

 to some the representation of a black cross, for which reason 

 it is sometimes known, in England, as the " cross-bearer." Other 

 examples of the beetle not unfrequently met with, may be 

 described as having their wing-covers blue-black, margined and 

 tipped with orange, and with three small yellow spots in a line 

 down the middle of each cover. 



Its Associates. — The scientific name of the beetle is Crioceris 

 asparagi. It was first described by Linnaeus, nearly a century ago. 

 It belongs to the same destructive family of the ChrysomelidcB 

 with the striped cucumber beetle, the cucumber flea -beetle, the 

 grapevine ilea -beetle, the Colorado potato-beetle, etc. For a Long 

 time it was the only representative of its genus in this country, but 

 another species has recently been introduced from Europe — Vrio- 

 c&ris 12-jmnctata, — which was first observed in the vicinity of Bal- 

 timore in 1881, and already gives indication oi becoming quite 

 destructive to asparagus. 



