Colorado Potato Beetle

The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) is a yellow-and-black striped beetle that eats potato leaves. Originally a minor insect on wild nightshades in the Rocky Mountains, it became a major crop pest in the nineteenth century.

🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Colorado Potato Beetle in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Ecdysozoa lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.

When settlers planted potatoes in the American West, the beetle moved from its native nightshade to the new crop. It spread eastward across the United States and was introduced to Europe, where it was first established near Bordeaux in the 1920s and then spread across Eurasia.

The beetle has evolved resistance to dozens of insecticides, often within a few years of their introduction. Its large genetic variation and capacity to detoxify plant poisons make control difficult. See Natural selection.

Adults burrow into the soil and enter diapause, a dormant state. Rotating crops and using resistant varieties help manage it.

• Natural selection — evolution of resistance
• Seven-spot Ladybird — a beneficial beetle