The New Student's Reference Work/Potato-Bug

Potato-Bug or Bee′tle, a widely known beetle infesting potato-vines. In 25 years it spread from the Colorado region to the Atlantic coast and from Virginia to Maine. Up to 1859 this insect fed upon the sand-bur, a wild plant related to the potato, but about that year it began to appear upon the potato vine. It multiplied rapidly and migrated eastward, causing extensive destruction. The second word in its Latin name (Doryphora decemlineata) refers to the ten dark lines on the wing-covers.

The orange-colored eggs are laid on the underside of a leaf in a cluster of about 50. The dark-red larvæ hatch within a week, feed for two or three weeks, then crawl under rubbish or burrow into the soil and there pass the pupa state and remain about ten days. About a month after hatching the adult beetle appears. There are two or three broods a year, the last brood in the beetle state lying dormant in the ground during the winter. When warm weather arrives, the beetles come forth in great numbers and fall greedily on the young potato-plants. The pest is successfully combatted by sprinkling plants with paris green mixed with water; or by dusting with this poison mixed with flour or pulverized plaster in the proportion of one pound to 20, used after a shower or a heavy dew.