OF THE FAEAI AXD GAEDEi^". 



95 



whose name lias since become so familiar to eyery ento- 

 mologist. "While on this expedition, extending through 

 1819 and IS'^O, numerous specimens of a species of beetle 

 were found on the Upper ^lissouri, near the base of the 

 Rocky Mountains, whicli some four years later( 1824) Mr. 

 Say described in a paper read before the Academy of 

 Xatural Sciences, Philadelphia, under the name of 

 Dorypliora 10-lineata, an insect that has since received 

 the common name of Colorado Potato-beetle. 



At the time of its discovery, neither Mr. Say nor any 

 of his associates cotild have had the remotest idea that this 

 insect would at some future day become one of the greatest 

 pests that ever afflicted the farms and gardens of this 

 country. Later explorers, visiting the same regions of 

 country where Mr. Say originally found the ^'ten-liners," 

 discovered it feeding on a wild species of Solcmum (S. 

 rostratum), a plant allied to and belonging to the same 

 genus as the cultivated Potato {Solanum tuherosum). 

 The pioneers on the western plains and i^rairies little 

 imagined that they were in such close proximity to an 

 insect that would soon give an immense amount of 

 trouble, and make the ctiltivation of the Potato anvthins: 

 but a pleasant and profitable occupation. But in 1861, 

 Mr. Thomas Murphy, of Atchison, Kansas, reported that 

 they were so ntimerous in his garden that he was enabled 

 in a very short time to gather two bushels of them. His 

 potatoes were quickly destroyed, and the beetles then 

 spread in all directions. Later they appeared in parts 

 of Iowa, and subsequently jiassed eastward, cross- 

 ing the Mississippi Eiver, and appearing in several 

 localities almost simultaneously within the State of 

 Illinois. In stating that this insect passes from one 

 locality to another, it must not be understood that it 

 migrates, it merely spreads, enough remaining bebind to 

 keep up an abundant stock, and they are probably now 

 no less abtmdant at points in the Western States than 



