Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1866-05-31
The New Potato Bue.

! Nithiii tic last HNc years, HUH NolO-
RADIO and Nebraska eastward into Iowa
and within the last year and a half has
crossed into Illinois and Wisconsin !:
whence, in course of time, it will proba-
bly, travel to the Atlantic, establishing
itself permanently, wherever it goes,
and pushing eastward at the rate of
about fifty miles a year. Hitherto nox-
ious insects have spread from east to
west in the United States, and this is
the first instance on record of one trav-
cling from the west towards the cast.
But, it will be asked, where does
this insect come from? And how does
it happen that it did not trouble the
Iowa farmers before 1861, and the
Illinois farmers before 1864? Unlike
several other noxious insects, it is not
general feeder, but is confined to
plants belonging to the botanical fami-
ly Solamacee, and especially to the ge-
nus Solanum, which includes the pota-
to, the tomato, the eggplant, and a
weed called the horse-nettle, found
more frequently in the Southern States,
but which also grows in certain locali-
ties in Iowa. In 1864, DR.. Velic, the
ornithologist of Rock Island, Ill.,, and
DR.. Parry, the botanist of Davenport,
Iowa, both saw this insect in very.
great numbers in Colorado, feeding up
Oh wild species of Solcnum-the ros.
tratum of Duval-which is peculiar to
that region of country, and is not
found cast of the Mississippi River
Assuming therefore, that this wild Sol
anum is the natural food of the insect,
and that the region of country bor-
dering on the Rocky Mountains is its
natural home, its range would for a
long series of years be limited by the
range of the plant it feeds on. But in
process Of time civilization marched up
to the Rocky neutrality-suspicious.
were planted in Kansas and Nebraska
and Colorado-and the insect discover
ed that one species of Solanum was
about as palatable as another. Hav.
ing thus acquired taste for potato
leaves, it would naturally spread east,
ward from potato patch to potato patch
till it overspead Iowa and finally over.
leaped the Mississippi into Illinois
In confirmation Of this theory, II. W.
Hazen of Fremont, Dodge Co., Nebras
ka, says that the potato bug which
is SO destructive in that region was
first discovered in 1859, about 10(
miles west of Omaha City, whenc,
they have been marching eastward an
nually." From Omaha City to Rock
Island is over 260 miles SO that, il
the above statement be true, it APP,
pears that the the insect has travelled
about $50 miles in six years, or at the
average rate of sixty miles year
E At this rate it would reach the Atlanti,
{ in about fourteen years.
The new potato bug is not wha
a naturalists call bug, but true beetle
, belonging to the Order Coteoptera Oh
: Shelly-wangs, and is rather more thar
one-third of an inch long, of so short
an oval shape as to be almost as
round as grape, and cream-coloret
with ten black lines or stripes placed
lengthways on its back. Its wings ar,
rose-colorcd aud presents beautiful
appearance as it flies. We may call i
in English the ten striped spearman,
which is the meaning of the scientif,
: name given to it. The above is th,
: appearance presented by the perfect o.
winged insect, when its wings are hit
: under its wing-cases but in the larv;
or immature state, it is a soft, elongate
six-legged grub, of dull, venetian
red color with several black spots, bu
without any wings, of course. There
are four or five successive broods o
them during the summer, and the larv;
of each brood goes underground .to
assume the pupa state. One who was
the first to watch this insect through
all its states, says that his specimens
, "hatched OH the 14th of June anC
came out as perfect insects on the l0tl
of July, thus being scarcely montl
going through all their changes.
No practical remedies against thi.
insect are known. Manipulating is rec
commended, but what farmer coult
|, hand-pick ten acres, if thickly infested
much less fifty or one hundred. Lin,
and ashes busted on the tops are use
less, and even coal oil and turpentin,
have been tried and found Of no more
, use than SO much water, as they sool
evaporate. Turkeys will destroy grea
numbers of them but it is to thei
, natural enemies, the lady-bug Coceinel
iid9) we must look for the most eff
, cient help. Hitherto the potato ha'
| comparatively been free from the dep
: relations of insects, and it would be
serious blow to the farmers in the pc
. tato districts of the Eastern and Mid
die States if this pest should come up
on the crop.
Mexico.