Leptinotarsa decemlineata
| Colorado potato beetle | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Family: | Chrysomelidae |
| Genus: | Leptinotarsa |
| Species: | L. decemlineata |
| Binomial name | |
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Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say, 1824 |
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| Synonyms | |
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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 or the potato bug, is a major pest of potato crops. It is approximately 10 millimetres (0.39 in) long, with a bright yellow/orange body and five bold brown stripes along the length of each of its elytra.
The Colorado potato beetle was first discovered by Thomas Nuttall in 1811 and described in 1824 by Thomas Say from specimens collected in the Rocky Mountains on Solanum rostratum (buffalo-bur).
The genus Leptinotarsa is assigned to the chrysolmelid beetle tribe Doryphorini (located in subfamily Chrysomelinae), which it shares with four other genera: Calligrapha, Labidomera, Proseicela, and Zygogramma. This tribe is characterised within the subfamily by round to oval shaped convex bodies which are usually brightly coloured, simple claws which separate at the base, open cavities behind the procoxae, and a variable apicial segment of the maxillary palp.
Adult beetles average 6–11 millimetres (0.24–0.43 in) in length and 3 millimetres (0.12 in) in width. The beetles are orange-yellow in colour with ten characteristic black stripes on the elytra. The species name decemlineata, meaning 'ten lines' derives from this feature. Adult beetles may, however, be visually confused with L. juncta, the false potato beetle, which is not an agricultural pest. L. juncta also has alternating black and white strips on its back, but one of the white strips in the center of each wing cover is missing and replaced by a light brown strip.
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