THE COLOKADO BEETLE, OR POTATO BUG. 263 



rule, parasites, outward and internal, trouble those animals whose 

 poor condition causes those unhealthy secretions and products which 

 it seems a purpose of nature that these parasites should exist to remove 

 and destroy ; and this applies to all other farm animals as well as to 

 pigs. 



THE PESTS OF THE CROPS. 



The damage and loss occasioned by insects which prey upon the 

 farmer's crops are beyond calculation. The Colorado Beetle alone 

 must have cost the farmers a hundred million dollars in the dozen 

 years or so since it first left its original home and came to stay with 

 us. The Chinch Bug has frequently cost the Western farmers fifty 

 million dollars in a single year in damage to the corn and wheat, and 

 the Hessian Fly has occasionally cost an equal sum in one year, but 

 is, fortunately, not so destructive as the bug. On every hand the 

 farmer is harassed by an innumerable army, whose ravages he can- 

 not resist, because of its numbers. But while one alone is powerless 

 to resist, yet, by learning a lesson from his enemies and combining 

 his forces and acting in unison, the farmer may do a good deal to 

 save his crops from destruction. 



THE COLORADO BEETLE, COMMONLY CALLED "POTATO BUG." 



This insect is just now creating so much alarm in Europe that the 

 governments are using every effort to instruct the people, old and 

 young, in regard to its appearance and habits, so that its first acci- 

 dental arrival may not pass unnoticed, and it may not escape imme- 

 diate destruction. Generally the course of emigration of insect pests 

 has been the other way, and we have received our worst insects from 

 Europe; the course of conquest, however, in this case, seems to be 

 reversed. This beetle is not easily mistaken. It is sluggish and slow 

 in its movements, is roundish in form, about half an inch in length, 

 and is marked very conspicuously with ten yellow and black lines 

 lengthwise of its wing covers. The under or true wings are reddish, 

 and are quite noticeable when the insect is flying. The female beetle 

 is larger than the male, and produces about 1,200 eggs. The insect 

 passes the winter in a mature but dormant state, in the ground, and 

 emerges about the middle of May or 1st of June, at the season of 

 potato planting. As soon as the first leaves of the young plants are 

 above ground, the beetles are ready and waiting to attack them, 

 and, unless prevented, will eat the young growth down to the ground 



