BEETLES. 75 



as a DurypJiora, and is still commonly referred to that genus, though 

 it more properly belongs to the allied genus Leptinotarsa, Stal. 



L. Decemlineata, Say, is about one-third of an inch in length 

 and the elytra are marked with alternate stripes of black and dull 

 yellow ; the thorax is also yellow, with a blackish V-shaped mark in 

 the centre, and several dark spots on each side. The wings are not 

 colourless, as in most other beetles, but red. The larvae, which are 

 the chief destructive agents, are reddish grubs, spotted with black. 

 This insect was only known for many years to feed on different 

 wild species of Solanacece in the Rocky Mountains, but in course of 

 time the spread of civilisation led to the invasion of its haunts by 

 the potato. This furnished the beetle with a new and almost 

 inexhaustible supply of food, and it took to feeding on the culti- 

 vated plant, rapidly increased in numbers, and spread from one 

 potato-field to another, till its ravages extended over the greater 

 part of Canada and the United States, when its progress was 

 arrested by the Atlantic Ocean. After great damage had been 

 done in America, various remedies were proposed by American 

 entomologists ; but the only one which has proved generally suc- 

 cessful is watering the plants with a preparation of arsenic known 

 as " Paris Green." Hitherto the beetle has not succeeded in 

 establishing itself on this side of the Atlantic. Some years ago, 

 however, there was a general fear of its introduction into Europe, 

 and more or less effectual i^recautions were taken against it by all 

 the European States. Everything found in a potato-field, or even 

 any unfamiliar annulose animal found anywhere, was at once mis- 

 taken for a Colorado Potato Beetle, and often announced as such in 

 the local journals. Perhaps the great caterpillar of the Death's Head 

 Hawk-Moth (Acherontia Atropos, Linn.), which feeds on the potato, 

 was more often mistaken for it than anything else. But there is 

 no doubt that single specimens of the beetle were sometimes 

 observed at sea-ports, just as tropical insects, etc., of all kinds, 

 some harmless and others noxious, are constantly met with in the 

 London Docks. It is quite likely that the insect might become 

 easily naturalised in Europe, if once fairly introduced, and prove 

 very injurious, so that although the first panic has now subsided, 

 it is to be hoped that the authorities will not relax their vigilance. 

 Any one bringing over, or keeping the insect alive in England, is 

 liable to a fine of £10, and very properly, for if a few live beetles 

 were to escape, it might be difficult to ei\adicate the pest afterwards, 

 A few years ago a colony was actually discovered in a potato- 



