. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. H7 a wild s])ecies of Solaiiiiiii {S. rostratuni), a jilant allied to and belonging to the same genus as the cultivated Potato {Solanum tHberosiim\. The pioneers on the western jilains and prairies little imagined that they were in such close proximity to an insect that would soon give them aa immense amount of trouble, and make the culti- vation of the Potato anything Init a pleas- ant or profitable occupation. But in 1861, Mr. Thos. Murphy of Atchison, Kansas, reported that they were so numerous in his garden that he was ena
. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. H7 a wild s])ecies of Solaiiiiiii {S. rostratuni), a jilant allied to and belonging to the same genus as the cultivated Potato {Solanum tHberosiim\. The pioneers on the western jilains and prairies little imagined that they were in such close proximity to an insect that would soon give them aa immense amount of trouble, and make the culti- vation of the Potato anything Init a pleas- ant or profitable occupation. But in 1861, Mr. Thos. Murphy of Atchison, Kansas, reported that they were so numerous in his garden that he was enabled in a very short time to gather two bushels of them. His Potatoes were quickly destroyed, and the beetles then spread in all directions. In the same year they appeared in other parts of Iowa, and from there passed eastward, [Fig. the few scattering plants of the wild Sola- num, as found on the plains, its numliers were limited to a few thousands, or per- haps hundreds to the square mile ; but as an acre of Potatoes will probably furnish more food than all the wild plants on a hundred of prairie, the sudden increase of this pest when it reached the out-lying settlements or farms of Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, can readily be accounted for. At first the progress of the beetles east- ward was at the rate of about sixty or seventy-five miles annually, but as they reached the more thickly settled regions their progress was more rapid, probably receiving some assistance from the rail- roads, specimens flying into the cars at some western station and escaping at another a hundred or two miles eastward, or in what- ?.^^ --,,^-^!BN,^ ever direction the train _x;' iiS. "lay have been going. That I he beetles were in many instances scattered over the country by such means can scarcely be questioned, as they were frequently found in the cars that had passed through infested regions. i;.\SILY CONFOUNDED WITH .\N .\LL1ED SPECIES. Colorado Potato-beetle : «. a, eggs (.".
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectentomology, bookyear1
