796 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
rOTATO-BETTLE. ITS LOCALITIES. ITS EAHE. 
this enemy. At the South, where they have had long and sore experience 
with the twin sister of our insect, the only remedy found to be effectual is 
searching out and destroying the worms. This “ worming ” of the tobacco 
fields, as it is termed, is an indispensable measure, forming a regular part 
of the tobacco culture. After the leaves are grown to a sufficient size for 
the worm to begin to feed upon them, not a day is suffered to pass without 
examining them. The leaves are so large and so very tender and brittle 
except for a short period at mid-day, when they become pliant from being 
somewhat wilted by the heat of the sun, that the utmost care is requisite 
in passing among them to avoid breaking and tearing them. Notwith¬ 
standing the closest scrutiny some of the worms will be overlooked, at 
each search which is made. Moreover, new moths are coming out and 
depositing their eggs day after day, whereby a succession of worms are 
appearing. Thus it becomes necessary to repeat this examination daily, 
searching out and destroying every worm while it is yet young and small! 
When these ugly looking worms first began to be noticed upon the toma¬ 
toes in our gardens, some sensitive persons were much alarmed with fears 
that they were poisonous and would render the fruit deleterious if they hap¬ 
pened to touch or crawl over it. But such fears arc wholly groundless. 
The sharp, thorn-like tail of this worm, however, if it chances to penetrate 
the skin, inflicts a painful wound. This is the only thing to be guarded 
against. 
10. Ten-Lined Potato-beetle, Doryphora 10 -lineata, Say. (Coleoptcra. Chry- 
somelidae.) Plate 4, figure 6. 
Eating the leaves of the potato in immense numbers through tho whole suramor; a thick, 
oval beetle nearly half an inch long, and of a pale yellow color with five black stripes on each 
wing cover, accompanied by its thick-bodied, worm-liko larva of a pale yellow color with 
rows of blaok dots, and six legs upon its breast and a pro-leg at tho pointed end of its body. 
Iii connection with the foregoing potato-worm, some account may here 
be given of a new enemy which, within the past two or three years, has 
fallen upon the potato-vines in numerous places all over the Northwestern 
States, stripping them of every vestige of their foliage and eating the stalks 
also, and hereby arresting the formation and growth of the tubers. Speci¬ 
mens ol this insect arc being frequently sent me for information respecting 
it, whereby I am able to present a description of it in its different stages 
of life and several important tacts respecting it. Fortunately for us, it'is 
not an inhabitant of our State, being found only in the valley of the Mis¬ 
sissippi at a distance from our borders. 
This insect was first discovered as being common on the Upper Missouri, 
by Mr. Say, when accompanying Long’s Exploring Expedition to the Rocky 
Mountains. He met with it upon the Arkansas river also. In 1823, he 
published a description of it (Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
vol. iii, p. 453), naming it from the number of the stripes upon its wing* 
coveis Doryphora \0-lineataov the Ten-lined Doryphora — this genus having 
been separated from the old genus Chrysomela, by Illiger, to include a 
number of South American species which have the middle portion of the 
