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Sticker of Colorado potato beetle
Bug card No. 0293 of 1,500

Colorado potato beetle

Leptinotarsa decemlineata
Name means: “ten-lined, after the stripes on its back”
Eats: PlantsBeetlesGardens and meadows6 legs

The Colorado potato beetle is a small, round beetle with a yellow-orange back and ten black stripes. It loves potato plants more than anything. Farmers are not fond of it, because it and its babies can eat a whole potato field bare.

Lives in
First from the Rocky Mountains of North America, now also across Europe and Asia, in potato fields and gardens
Length
0.6 to 1.1 cm (0.24 to 0.43 in)
Top speed
about 0.43 km/h (0.27 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It cannot bite or sting, it only eats potato leaves.
What does it eat?
Both the beetles and their orange-pink larvae munch the leaves of potato plants. Long ago, before potatoes were planted near it, it ate a wild plant called buffalo bur.
For real!Photo of Colorado potato beetle
Picture by Scott Bauer, USDA ARS. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Colorado potato beetle about 1.1 cm long (0.43 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 8.4 seconds

How big is Colorado potato beetle compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

When it found potato fields, it spread across America at about 140 kilometres a year.

2

One female can lay more than 500 eggs in about a month.

3

Its larvae are orange-pink with a black head and grow up to 1.5 centimetres long.

4

It has reached Britain many times, and people there have cleared it away more than 160 times.

5

Before potato fields existed nearby, it lived in the Rocky Mountains eating a wild plant called buffalo bur.

you asked

Most asked questions about Colorado potato beetle

?Is the Colorado potato beetle dangerous?

Not to people. It is harmless to touch, but it is a big problem for potato plants.

?What does the Colorado potato beetle eat?

Mostly potato leaves. The larvae eat them too.

?How big is a Colorado potato beetle?

About 6 to 11 millimetres long, about the size of a fingernail.

Myth buster

Myth: Colorado potato beetles were dropped on Europe from planes.

Truth: No. That was a made-up story. The beetles reached Europe from America with ships and goods and then spread by themselves.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Leptinotarsa decemlineata
Named by
Say, 1824
Group
Beetles
Family
Chrysomelidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
Lives on
North America, Europe, Asia
Also known as
Colorado beetle, Ten-striped spearman, Ten-lined potato beetle, Potato bug

Where the facts come from

  1. Colorado potato beetle (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Scott Bauer, USDA ARS. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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