44 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



EXTENT OF DAMAGE. 



We found that the districts most affected by the insect were those 

 portions of the Province situated on the frontier, between Sarnia and 

 Amherstburgh, and extending inland from twenty to forty miles ; but we 

 have obtained undoubted evidence of the fact, that in smaller but rapidly 

 increasing numbers this pest has spread over a very large portion of the 

 Province, embracing Bayfield to the North, the neighborhood of Toronto 

 to the east, and over almost the entire portion of the western section of 

 the country. It must be remembered, however, that those insects we have 

 seen are of the first brood only, and as the season advances we shall, 

 without doubt, receive reports of great injury sustained in many districts 

 by the succeeding broods. Already several instances have come under 

 our notice of parties who have been so discouraged by the utter destruc- 

 tion of their potato vines, that they have ploughed up entire fields and 

 sown other crops in their place. We anticipate that the large amount of 

 shipping daily passing down the Detroit river, and the continual move- 

 ment of railway cars from affected districts, both in Ontario and the 

 United States, to the eastern portions of the Provinces, will, by affording 

 shelter and means of transport to the beetle, distribute this insect shortly 

 over the entire coast line and portions of the country through which the 

 railways pass. 



ITS PROBABLE CONTINUANCE. 



From all the information we have been able to obtain from competent 

 observers in those Western States which first suffered from the depreda- 

 tions of this foe, we deem it highly probable that we shall have to contend 

 with it for many years to come. In the course of three or four summers 

 oar agriculturists may expect that the insect enemies of this beetle, of 

 wcihh we already know seme nine or ten to exist in Canada, and which 

 prey upon the eggs and larvae, will, in the natural order of things, so mul- 

 tiply as materially to check the further increase of the Colorado Beetle. 



is IT POISONOUS? 



As many stories are current relating to the supposed poisonous charac- 

 ter of this insect, we made it a special point to obtain all the information 

 possible on this head, and we were unable to find the slightest evidence 

 t ) sustain this popular belief, although we conversed with many persons 

 who had handled and destroyed many thousands of the insects in their 

 different stages, and also handled them freely ourselves with impunity. 



