26 DISTRIBUTION AND DISPERSION OF LEPTINOTARSA. 



editor of the Valley Farmer, published the following letter from Mr. Thomas 

 Murphy of that place : 



Atchison, Kansas, May 22, 1862. 

 Editor Valley Farmer : . . . . My object in sending them is to see if you person- 

 ally or through your valuable journal can find out any method or remedy by which I 

 can get rid of them. I cultivate about 10 acres of land for the purpose of raising potatoes 

 for my hotel ; it is situated on high prairie land. Last August, soon after a heavy shower 

 of rain, these bugs suddenly made their appearance in large numbers on the potato vines 

 They were so numerous that in many instances they would almost cover the whole vine. 

 It is no exaggeration when I tell you that we have often in a very short time gathered as 

 many as 2 bushels of them. When cold weather set in they disappeared. Early this 

 spring I was setting out some apple trees, and away down in the hard yellow clay I found 

 these bugs apparently dead, but put them in the sun and they immediately came to life. 

 They have again made their appearance in my garden in large numbers. Last year they 

 ate up everything green on the potato vines, then commenced on the tomatoes, and so 

 on, on everything green. Strange to say, they trouble no one else. 



Yours, etc., Thomas Murphy. 



This occurrence some 200 miles from the point of "first discovery," in 

 1859, is of interest. There is not the slightest doubt as to the accuracy of 

 this record, because specimens received by Colman were sent to Walsh for 

 identification ; it, however, throws grave doubt upon the statement made by 

 Hazen as to the ' ' first discover}'. ' ' In the sparsely settled condition of 

 Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa at that time the beetle would be hardly able to 

 travel 200 miles in two years, when in the more thickly settled portions of 

 the country it was able to advance only 50 or 80 miles in a year. It is also 

 recorded from Gravity, Taylor County, Iowa, by Edgerton (1861), who 

 states " they made their appearance upon the vines as soon as the potatoes 

 were out of the ground, and there being a cold, wet spell about that time 

 they devoured them as fast as they were up. ' ' 



These two occurrences, so widely separated from the record of 1 859, are very 

 conclusive evidence that the beetle must have been much farther east in 1859 

 than Hazen's record places it. The records at Gravity, Iowa, and Atchison, 

 Kansas, are not those of first introduction, but of first ravages, which always 

 occur from two to four years after the date of actual introduction. It is 

 therefore certain that the beetles were in western Iowa and eastern Kansas 

 in 1858 or 1859, if not at an earlier date. This date places the front of the 

 advance for the year 1861 somewhat to the east of Gravity, in Iowa, and 

 Atchison, in Kansas (plate 8), and it is certain that the advancing hordes 

 had reached the two points mentioned by i860, if not before, and I have 

 drawn the yearly lines of advance according to this interpretation of the data. 



1862. In this year Emery records the presence of the potato beetle in 

 Crescent City, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where it "first appeared" in 

 1862. Specimens were sent to Walsh for identification, hence the record is 

 accurate. In this case the first record of appearance is also one of first 



