in Iowa, and in 1862, it appeared in southwestern Wisconsin. 
It crossed the Mississippi river into Illinois in 1864. It was 
in Michigan and Indiana in 1867, Ohio in 1868, and Pennsyl¬ 
vania in 1870. It moved eastward at the rate of about fifty 
miles a year for a number of years, but later it traveled more 
rapidly. It is reported to have reached the Atlantic coast about 
1874, and Nova Scotia about 1882. When it reached the At¬ 
lantic coast, it had traveled 1,500 miles in 16 years, and nearly 
a thousand miles more the next eight years in its march to 
Nova Scotia. 
In this way many noxious insects gain a foothold at some 
point and spread over a great area, become a permanent pest, 
and damage crops to the extent of millions of dollars. The 
Colorado potato beetle has, on several occasions, been observed 
in European countries, but the alarm aroused at the time of 
its rapid spreading in the United States extended to European 
countries, and governmental control seems thus far to have 
been successful in preventing its being firmly established in 
foreign countries. 
The destruction of potato fields excited in the minds of 
many fears that it would entirely destroy the business of potato 
growing. Laws were enacted in England about the year 1877 
to the effect that any person importing a living Colorado beetle 
should be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds (fifty dol¬ 
lars), and that if any person found specimens upon vegetation, 
he should give prompt notice of the same to the constable of 
the police establishment of the locality. 
Let us now study the beetle. We find the three pairs of 
legs, two pairs of wings, one pair of antennae, one pair of 
compound eyes, and a body divisible into the head, thorax and 
abdomen, thus far a typical insect. The most noticeable differ¬ 
ence between this and any previous insect we have studied is in 
the modification of the first pair of wings. This pair covers 
the major portion of the body. The two pieces fit closely 
together, their union forming a straight line down the back. 
They are hard, and known as the elytra , or shield wings. We 
find on each one of this pair five dark lines upon an orange- 
yellow ground, making in all ten such black lines along the 
body. The insect is clumsy in flight, because it is with difficulty 
that this first pair of wings is raised from the body to allow the 
