NOTES ON THE ASPARAGUS BEETLES. 7 
noticed. It was reported also 40 miles west of Chicago, 111. It has 
become very generally distributed in asparagus growing districts in 
New York State, and has reached Glens Falls, which approximates its 
northernmost limit in this country. In 1905 we received complaint 
of this insect as a pest in Illinois, at Park Ridge, and of its occurrence 
about Chicago. Reports from Michigan showed that it had been 
present there in 1904 in the vicinity of Ada, about 10 miles from 
Grand Rapids, and that it was a pest in that vicinity. 
Although the data given above indicate that the species is now well 
distributed throughout the Upper Austral region, for some reason its 
occurrence in Indiana has not yet come to our knowledge; neverthe- 
less although there are naturally many uninvaded localities, it is 
undoubtedly established in that State, most probably near Lake 
Michigan. 
As an example of its manner of distribution, it might be noted that 
in May, 1905, the beetle was found for the first time in Warrenton, 
Fauquier County, Va., a little farther inland than it had ever been 
noticed in that section. Yet this species has been permanently estab- 
lished in the adjoining Alexandria County for many years. 
August 8, 1905, Mr. Ralph E. Smith wrote of the occurrence of this 
species in California, stating that during two seasons it had been very 
abundant at Bouldin Island, the principal asparagus center of that 
region. As Mr. Smith was familiar with this insect and its occur- 
rence on the Atlantic coast, there is little doubt that his identification 
is correct. In the winter of 1904 to 1905 Bouldin Island was flooded 
and remained under water for over a 3 ear. It had just been reclaimed 
and there were no signs of the beetles. There is, therefore, a possibility 
that the insect was exterminated in that region, and this includes the 
State, if the occurrence of the species was only local. 
The dying out of this asparagus beetle in small localities where it 
has not become thoroughly established is not without precedent, as its 
recorded occurrence at Rock Island, 111., many }^ears ago, has been 
verified by specimens now in a Chicago museum, properly labeled 
as collected there by the late A. Bolter, an experienced collector of 
Coleoptera. Indeed, it would seem that few vegetable-feeding insects 
are more subject to extermination in a limited locality not contiguous 
to one also infested than is the present species. 
October 26, 1900, Mr. Ralph E. Smith, at the writer's request, 
reported the status of this species in California. He wrote that during 
the summer he found the beetles again, and that they were very abun- 
dant in fields near Oakley, Cal. It could not be stilted that the insect 
was of general occurrence in the State, but apparently it existed only 
in a few scattered colonies. As previously reported the colony at 
Bouldin Island appears to have been exterminated by flood, and 
55908°— Bull. 66—10 2 
