﻿NOXIOUS INSECTS, 



THE COLORADO POTATO BEETLE— Bo njj^hor a 10-lineata Say. 

 (Ord. CoLEOPTERA ; Fam. CiirysomelidjE.) 



IT EE ACHES THE ATLANTIC. 



After narrating, in 1868,* how this insect had made its way from 

 the Rocky Mountains, where it originally fed on the wild Sola7iuin 

 Tostratum Dunal, till, in 1859, it reached a point one hundred miles 

 west of Omaha, Neb.; how, in 1861, it invaded Iowa, in 1862, South- 

 west Wisconsin, and in 1864 and 1865, crossed the Mississippi to the 

 western part of Illinois and eastern part of North Missouri ; how, in 

 1866, it occupied most of the country west of a line drawn between 

 Chicago and St. Louis ; how, in 1867, it reached Southwest Michigan 

 and West Indiana ; and, finally, how, in 1868, it was already announced 

 in portions of Ohio — I showed that its average annual progress east- 

 ward had been upward of seventy miles, and predicted that it would 

 probably reach the Atlantic about A.D. 1878, or a few years earlier than 

 Mr. Walsh had calculated some years previously, when he first traced 

 its eastern progress and showed that it was traveling onward to the 

 Atlantic, establishing a permanent colony wherever it went. In subse- 

 quent reports, its progress eastward was yearly recorded, and I now 

 have to record that it reached the Atlantic at many points during the 

 year 1874, or four years in advance of the time predicted — the increased 

 average annual rate being due no doubt -to the aid the beetles got in 

 their onward course from ships on the lakes and from the cars on our 

 railroads. 



Early in the summer, I received undoubted evidence of its appear- 

 ance on the Atlantic seabord, and it was reported during the year 



♦First Report, pp. ]02-;J. 



