3(34 
The Colorado Potato- Beetle. 
would give them protection should they be dug out accidentally 
and transported in that state. We have full assurance also that 
they do not enter the dried haulm of the potato ; but it is not 
quite so sure that they might not seek the protection of masses 
of withered and curled-up leaves, inasmuch as Mr. C. V. Riley, 
State Entomologist for Missouri, to whom the world is indebted 
for almost all the authentic information we possess regarding 
the beetle's habits, has found them concealed in winter under 
various substances lying on the surface of the ground. The 
general habit, however, appears undoubtedly to be to hybernate 
at considerable depths in the loose soil of the potato-fields which 
the insects had infested in the previous summer. 
The potato-beetle is thus seen to be no insidious enemy, like 
the majority of insect plagues, but it meets the agriculturist in 
open fair fight. It was originallv stated, however, by Dr. Shimer, 
of Illinois, that it hybernated in the pupa as well as the beetle 
state. This has lately been repeated by Continental writers on 
the subject ; but Mr. Riley, in his latest Reports to the State 
Board of Agriculture for Missouri, positively assures us it is not 
the fact. Even if it were, it would not be of much practical 
importance, inasmuch as the pupa and its slight earthen co- 
coon, which, if extracted from the ground, would be of about 
the size of a sparrow's egg, are of so fragile a texture that they 
could not possibly survive transport mixed with heavy loose 
substances. 
Such is the Colorado potato-beetle, and such are the main 
features of its life-history which chiefly concern the European 
agriculturist and the general public. I will now proceed to give 
a summary of its career in America, derived from the most 
trustworthy authorities. The origin, character, and progress of 
its depredations present points of unusual interest, which con- 
cern students of Natural History as a science, quite as much as 
the potato-grower. 
American Naturalists agree in the conclusion that the potato- 
beetle is not originally a native of the country east of the Rocky 
Mountains, where it has of late become so notorious for its 
ravages. Statements to the contrary were founded on the mis- 
take of confounding the species with an allied one, the " Bogus 
Potato-beetle" (Dorypliora juncta^, a native of the Middle States, 
which feeds only on a wild Solanum. The true potato-beetle 
was discovered in the region since known as the Territory ol 
Colorado (lat. 38° to 40°), in 1824, by the entomologist, Thomas 
Say, who accompanied the Government Expedition of that year 
under Major Long ; and was found by him feeding on a wild 
species of Solanum (aS. rostrafiivi) peculiar to the Rocky Moun- 
tains. On that and on an allied species, S. cornutum, it is still 
