page_title: Colorado potato beetle
section_title: Potato crop pest
hierarchical_section_title: Colorado potato beetle / As an agricultural pest / Potato crop pest
caption_attribution_description: English: Colorado beetle larva eating
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: Around 1840, L. decemlineata adopted the cultivated potato into its host range and it rapidly became a most destructive pest of potato crops. It is today considered to be the most important insect defoliator of potatoes. It may also cause considerable damage to tomato and eggplant crops with both adults and larvae feeding on the plant's foliage. Larvae may defoliate potato plants resulting in yield losses up to 100% if the damage occurs prior to tuber formation. Larvae may consume 40 cm² of potato leaves during the entire larval stage, but adults are capable of consuming 10 cm² of foliage per day.
  The economic cost of insecticide resistance is significant, but published data on the subject are minimal. In 1994, total costs of the insecticide and crop losses in the US state of Michigan were $13.3 million, representing 13.7% of the total value of the crop. The estimate of the cost implication of insecticides and crop losses per hectare is $138–368. Long-term increased cost to the Michigan potato industry caused by insecticide resistance in Colorado potato beetle was estimated at $0.9 to $1.4 million each year.
caption: A Colorado beetle larva eating a leaf of a potato plant
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