THE COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 



705 



made known by me in 1863, The beetle hibernates either beneath 

 the ground or beneath any other shelter that it can obtain. Early iu 

 spring it issues from its winter quarters, and may be seen flying about, 

 on sunny days, long before tiiere are any potato-tops for it to devour. 

 In flight it presents a very pretty appearance, its gauzy, rose-colored 

 under-wings contrasting agreeably with the striped yellow and black 

 elytra or wing-covers. The sexes pair, and, as soon as the potato 

 haulms push out of the ground, these beetles break their long winter 

 fast, sometimes even working their way down toward the sprout be- 

 fore it is fairly out of the earth. The eggs, which are orange-yellow, 

 are laid in small clusters on theunder sides of the leaves, and the same 

 female continues to thus lay at short intervals for a period of over 

 forty days, until the number laid by a single specimen may aggregate 

 from 500 to over 1,000. There are, in the latitude of St. Louis, three 

 broods each year ; but, from the fact that a single female continues to 

 deposit as above described, and from the irregularity of larval devel- 

 opment, the insect may be found in all stages throughout the summer 

 months. In from thirty to forty days from the time the egg is de- 

 posited, the insect hatching from it goes through all its transfor- 

 mations and become a beetle, the pupa state being assumed under- 

 ground. The prolificacy of the species may be imagined when it is 

 remembered that the progeny of a single female may exceed a hundred 

 millions in the course of a single season ! The beetle feeds as well as 

 the larva, though not so voraciously. Its attacks are principally con- 

 fined to plants of the family Solanacece^ and it is particularly fond of 

 those belonging to the genus Solarium. Yet I have recorded many 



Fig. 2. LYDELLADoRTpnoK.E; Parasite of Dort- 

 PHORA. Colors, Silver-grat and Black. 



Fig. 3 Many banded Robber ; with 

 Beak enlarged at Side (Ij). Colors, 

 Pale Yellow and Black. Preys on 

 doryphora. 



instances of its acquiring new habits in its march to the Atlantic, and 

 of its feeding, when hard pushed, on plants of other families. There 

 are various means of destroying the insect, and in the earlier invaded 

 territory of the States, though it continues its ravages, thereby mak- 

 ing the cultivation of potatoes more laborious, and increasing their 

 market price, yet it is no longer dreaded as it at first was, for the rea- 



VOL. VII. 45 



