568 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



potato or tomato worm. This worm from its size and some- 

 what belligerent appearance is sometimes feared and thought 

 to be poisonous, but it is really an entirely harmless insect 

 so far as handling it is concerned. The great size and com- 

 paratively small numljers of tlie worm, make hand picking 

 easy, and in this way its ravages, when they occur, may be 

 checked. 



Far more destructive than any of the moths to the potato 

 are several species of beetles, or Coleoptera — a group of 

 vast size, embracing in all probability not less than eighty 

 thousand distinct species. The beetles are for tlie most 

 part easily distinguished by the hai'd, shell-like upper 

 wings, beneath which are folded the thinner under pair, 

 which alone serve for flight. Not all the beetles injurious 

 to the potato are found in New England, ])ut (juite a num- 

 ber are, or probably soon will be. 



There is one of the curculios [Baridius trinotatus, Say.), 

 which in the Southern, Middle and Western States has 

 ruined many potatoes. The beetle is about one-fourth of an 

 inch long, of a bluish gray witli tliree shining black spots 

 on the thorax. The female bores into the stalk of the po- 

 tato and lays in it her egg, and as soon as hatched the larva 

 bores down towards the ground ruining the vines. If the 

 vines are all burned as soon as they wilt this insect may be 

 destroyed. It has not yet appeared in New England. 



