724 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



The noxt year, 1870, in Essex County, Massachusetts, tbey attracted the 

 attention ofi'armers ami others about the ] st of June. Specimens brought 

 me from Marblehead and Lawrence laid eggs June 7, which hatched 

 June 12. June 22, I found the beetle and young in all stages, from the 

 egs ^M^ to the nearly mature larva, in a garden in Salem, and a few days 

 after heard of its appearance in the towns of Eeading, Beverly, Wen- 

 ham, Hamilton, and Essex. In 187C it was extremely injurious in Essex 

 County. I am informed by Mr. John H. Sears, of Danvers, that half 

 his crop of late potatoes were devoured by this beetle, and he thinks 

 that there was a proportionate loss throughout the county. Early 

 potatoes mostly escaped their ravages. The potato-fields in the neigh- 

 borhood of Amherst were overrun with them soon after the plants came 

 up, and in September I saw the beetle everywhere. In 1877 the yield 

 of po^atoes will be undoubtedly verj'^ light and potatoes high priced. 

 During the autumn of 1876 they were said to be unusually high. 



At the same time I learned from Mr. Isaac L. Ham, of Wipchendon, 

 Mass., a town about 18 miles west of Boston, that eggs and beetles were 

 found on the vines the 20th of July, 1875. Beetles were seen at Lowell 

 in August, 1875. It appears from these facts that the beetles must have 

 been introduced along lines of railway in different portions of Massa- 

 chusetts in 1874. 



In 1875 it appeared in the western part of Vermont, and during the 

 summer of 1876 has been reported as more or less abundant in various 

 parts of the State. In 1875 it appeared for the first time in New Hamp- 

 shire, according to C. H. Fernald. In 1866 Mr. Walsh predicted that it 

 would reach Maine '' in ten or twelve years." His prediction has proved 

 to be a true one. In Maine, according to Prof. C. H. Fernald, it was first 

 seen in 1875, and occurred not, so far as lean learn, on the southwestern 

 border of the State, but in the central portion, and this leads me to think 

 that its appearance here, as well as in New England generally, has been 

 accelerated by its transportation on freight-cars which have been sent 

 through from different points in the West. It is a well-determined fact 

 that the diffusion of noxious insects over the United States is greatly 

 promoted by railways and "through" freight-cars, as permanent tracks 

 are tliusmade through forests and across rivers, the natural barriers of 

 insect life. 



Regarding its advent in Maine, I will first quote from a letter of Prof. 

 C. H. Fernald, of the Maine State Agricultural College, dated Orono, 

 August 23, 1876 : 



The trne Colorado potato-beetle is really in this State, but has not yet arrived so far 

 east as this place. It has been rei^orted at Orringtou, near Bucksport, but I thiuk it 

 more thau likely to have been the three-lined potatorbeetle, {Lema trUineata). Speci- 

 mens were sent me from Winterport which proved to be the three-lined. The true beetle 

 (imago) was sent to me about three weeks ago from Skowhegan, where it was common 

 enough to attract attention. One of our students found it in Saco in July of this year. 

 A few days ago I had a letter from a friend in Wiltou, who says they are common there. 

 Last fall I looked into the matter a little, and could not learn that they had at that 

 time reached the western boundarj- of Maine, though they were in New Hampshire. 

 Reasoning from their rate of progress across the continent, I concluded they would 

 travel this year as far as the Kennebec River, which they seem to have done. I sup- 

 Ijose they have come into the State by their own means of distribution— flying from 

 field to held. 



Mr. D. A. Conant, in a communication to the Maine Farmer, dated 

 July 28, states that certain beetles, identified by the editor of that 

 paper (Mr. S. L. Boardman) as Doryphora 10-lineata, occurred in Temple, 

 Me., near West Farmiugcon. Mr. R. A. Davis writes to the same paper 

 August 6, from South Norridgewock, as follows : 



We had very dry and hot weather in July; crops suffered very much. Two weeks 

 ago to-day we had a nice rain, with heavy showers, and since that corn and potatoes 



