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The Colorado Potato-Beetle. 
Continent than in England, especially with reference to the 
probability, judging from analogous cases of migration of insect 
pests, and the habits of the potato-beetle, of its introduction into 
Europe ; and the result has been, up to the present moment, to 
leave the matter in considerable doubt. One cannot read, for 
instance, the discussions, repeatedly adjourned, of the Entomo- 
logical Society of Belgium last spring, in which some of the 
ablest professors of the science in Europe took part, without 
perceiving that no conclusion has been arrived at calculated to 
set at rest the public mind with regard to it. In the review of 
the subject which here follows, I think it will be made clear that 
we have no valid grounds for fearing that the pest — should stray 
specimens accidentally arrive — will ever make good its footing 
in the British Islands. The history of the beetle is, however, 
well worth relating to English agriculturists ; and an account of 
the means, more or less successful, by which the danger has 
been combated in America will be useful, should the creature, 
in spite of all reasons to the contrary, pay us a visit. 
The Colorado Potato-beetle, or " bug " (as it is misleadingly 
termed in America), unlike most insect pests, is not liable to 
be overlooked by reason of the smallness of its size and the 
hidden nature of its habits. It is a conspicuously coloured 
beetle, rather more than the third of an inch in length ; of 
plump, oval form, and of a creamy-yellow colour, with ten black 
stripes along its back, or rather its wing-cases, which, when 
closed, as they are in repose, cover the greater part of its upper 
surface. The stout legs, with their broadish feet, beautifully 
adapted for clinging to the surface and edges of leaves, are 
almost wholly of a reddish colour, and the fore-part of the body 
is yellow, with black markings. It has a pair of well-developed 
membranous wings, folded under the closed wing-cases, which 
it uses only in the warm days of summer, and, as it appears, only 
when requiring to migrate from one field or district to another. 
But it flies slowly and heavily, the rosy colour of its wings con- 
trasted with the gaily-striped wing-cases rendering it in its 
flight a very conspicuous object. We have no native beetle or 
other insect in the least resembling it ; and it would probably 
attract the attention of anyone as something strange and foreign 
should stray specimens be seen in our fields, or, what is more 
likely, at any of our sea-ports. Its scientific name is Doryphora 
decendincata, and it belongs to the family Clirysomelidcc, of the 
great tribe Pliytophaga, or plant-eaters, of the order Colcoptera. 
Many species of the same lamily are well known to the curious 
as inhabiting Britain, some of them as large and conspicuous as 
the dreaded Dorypliora ; but they are differently coloured, and 
have not yet rendered themselves obnoxious by transferring their 
