Colorado potato beetle | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Family: | Chrysomelidae |
Genus: | Leptinotarsa |
Species: | L. decemlineata
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Binomial name | |
Leptinotarsa decemlineata | |
Synonyms[2] | |
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The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata; also known as the Colorado beetle, the ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle, and the potato bug) is a beetle known for being a major pest of potato crops. It is about 10 mm (3⁄8 in) long, with a bright yellow/orange body and five bold brown stripes along the length of each of its elytra. Native to the Rocky Mountains, it spread rapidly in potato crops across America and then Europe from 1859 onwards.[3]
The Colorado potato beetle was first observed in 1811 by Thomas Nuttall and was formally described in 1824 by American entomologist Thomas Say.[3] The beetles were collected in the Rocky Mountains, where they were feeding on the buffalo bur, Solanum rostratum.[4]
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