page_title: Colorado potato beetle
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Colorado potato beetle / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: Family: Chrysomelidae Size: 10,5 mm Origin: introduced from America to Europe Ecology: lives and develops in Europe at the potato plant Location: Germany, Bavaria, Upper Franconia, Kulmbach leg.det. U.Schmidt, 4.VIII.1972 Photo: U.Schmidt, 2014
context_page_description: The Colorado potato beetle, also known as the Colorado beetle, the ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle, or the potato bug, is a major pest of potato crops. It is about 10 mm long, with a bright yellow/orange body and five bold brown stripes along the length of each of its elytra. Native to America, it spread rapidly in potato crops across America and then Europe from 1859 onwards.
context_section_description: The Colorado potato beetle was first observed in 1811 by Thomas Nuttall and was formally described in 1824 by American entomologist Thomas Say. The beetles were collected in the Rocky Mountains, where they were feeding on the buffalo bur, Solanum rostratum. The genus Leptinotarsa is assigned to the chrysolmelid beetle tribe Doryphorini (in subfamily Chrysomelinae), which it shares with five other genera: Doryphora, Calligrapha, Labidomera, Proseicela, and Zygogramma.
caption: Leptinotarsa decemlineata adult specimen
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