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Colorado potato beetle

 
Colorado Potato Beetle

 
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Colorado potato beetle
 
 
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The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), also known as the Colorado beetle, ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle) is an important pest of potato crops. It is approximately 10 mm (0.4 inches) long, with a bright yellow/orange body and 5 bold brown stripes along the length of each of its elytra
Elytron

An elytron is a modified, hardened forewing of certain insect orders, notably beetles and true bugs . An elytron is sometimes also referred to as a shard....
, and it can easily be confused with its close cousin and look-alike, the false potato beetle
False potato beetle

The false potato beetle , Leptinotarsa juncta, is a beetle found primarily in the Mid-Atlantic States and Southeastern United States regions of the United States....
.






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The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), also known as the Colorado beetle, ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle) is an important pest of potato crops. It is approximately 10 mm (0.4 inches) long, with a bright yellow/orange body and 5 bold brown stripes along the length of each of its elytra
Elytron

An elytron is a modified, hardened forewing of certain insect orders, notably beetles and true bugs . An elytron is sometimes also referred to as a shard....
, and it can easily be confused with its close cousin and look-alike, the false potato beetle
False potato beetle

The false potato beetle , Leptinotarsa juncta, is a beetle found primarily in the Mid-Atlantic States and Southeastern United States regions of the United States....
. The beetle was described in 1824 by Thomas Say
Thomas Say

Thomas Say was an United States natural history, entomologist, malacologist and carcinologist. He was a taxonomist and is often considered to be the father of descriptive entomology in the United States and one of the founding fathers of the Entomological Society of America ....
 from specimens collected in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
 on buffalo-bur, Solanum rostratum
Solanum rostratum

Solanum rostratum is a species of plant in the genus Solanum.It forms a tumbleweed.References...
. The origin of the beetle is somewhat unclear, but it seems to be that Colorado
Colorado

The State of Colorado is a U.S. state located in the Mountain States of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western United States and Southwestern United States regions of the United States....
 and Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 are a part of its native distribution in the southwestern North America.

Life cycle

Potato Beetle Larvae

As a crop pest

The Colorado beetle is a serious crop pest of potatoes. They may also cause significant damage to tomatoes and eggplants. Both adults and larvae feed on foliage and may completely eliminate the crop. Insecticide
Insecticide

An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects in all developmental forms. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the Egg and larvae of insects respectively....
s are currently the main method of beetle control on commercial farms. However, chemicals are often unsuccessful when used against this pest because of the beetle's resistance to toxin
Toxin

A toxin is a poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms. For a toxic substance not produced by living organisms, "toxicant" is the more appropriate term, and "toxics" is an acceptable plural....
s and ability to rapidly develop resistance
Pesticide resistance

Pesticide resistance is the adaptation of pest species targeted by a pesticide resulting in decreased susceptibility to that chemical. In other words, pests develop a resistance to a chemical through selection; after they are exposed to a pesticide for a prolonged period it no longer kills them as effectively....
 to them. The Colorado potato beetle has developed resistance to all major insecticide classes. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, where the Colorado beetle is a rare visitor on imported farm produce, it is a notifiable pest: any found must be reported to DEFRA.

High fecundity usually allows Colorado potato beetle populations to withstand natural enemy pressure. Still, in the absence of insecticides natural enemies can sometimes reach densities capable of reducing Colorado potato beetle numbers below economically damaging levels. Beauveria bassiana
Beauveria bassiana

Beauveria bassiana is a fungus that grows naturally in soils throughout the world and acts as a parasite on various insect species, causing white muscardine disease; it thus belongs to the entomopathogenic fungi....
 (Hyphomycetes) is a pathogenic fungus that infects a wide range of insect species, including the Colorado potato beetle. It is probably the most widely used natural enemy of the Colorado potato beetle, with readily available commercial formulations that can be applied using a regular pesticide sprayer.

In Europe

Kartoffelkaefer Fg01e
In 1877, the Colorado beetle reached Germany where it was eradicated. During, or immediately following WWI it became established near USA military bases in Bordeaux and proceeded to spread by the beginning of WWII to Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. The population increased dramatically during and immediately following WWII and it spread eastwards and it is now found over much of the continent. During World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, the Nazi
Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
 regime in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, and many satellite states of Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 used them for propaganda, claiming that the beetles had been dropped by the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces

The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. The direct precursor to the United States Air Force, its peak size was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft in 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943....
. The Americans were also blamed by regime propaganda when after World War II, in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, almost half of all potato fields were infested by the beetle by 1950. In the EU it remains a regulated (quarantine) pest for the UK, Republic of Ireland, Balearic Islands, Cyprus, Malta and southern parts of Sweden and Finland. It is not present in any of these Member States.

Philately

The Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
n postal authority featured the beetle on a 1967 stamp.

The Belgian postal authority featured a drawing of the Colorado beetle and larvae on a 1934 and 1935 propaganda postcard.

Media references

The beetle is featured prominently in the science-fiction/horror novel The Devil's Coach Horse (also known as The Black Horde) by Richard Lewis. In the novel a plague of an evolved and flesh hungry type of the beetle (as well as the titular creature) is unknowingly released in Great Britain and the United States.

External links