potato bug
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]potato bug (plural potato bugs)
- The Jerusalem cricket, various insects of the genus Stenopelmatus.
- The woodlouse, various terrestrial crustaceans of suborder Oniscidea.
- Any of various insects that feed on or harm potato plants.
- 1838, “Legislating; or, the rival whiskers”, in The Hesperian[1], page 42:
- […] it appears that by a recent discovery, it has been found that that well-known insect the Potato Bug, yields an oil, which is a sovereign and certain remedy, for all manner of diseases which poor “human flesh is heir to.”
- The striped blister beetle or old-fashioned potato bug (Epicauta vittata).
- 1919, Missouri State Board of Agriculture, The New Seed Law, page 58:
- We have another potato bug, the “blister beetle,” also called the “old-fashioned potato bug,” which happened to be especially bad this year in the northwest corner of the state.
- The Colorado beetle or Colorado potato bug (Leptinotarsa decemlineata).
- 1995, Willis Conner Sorensen, Brethren of the Net[2], page 122:
- They predicted that the “new” potato bug would soon endanger potato growers in the Eastern United States and Canada
- 2018 December 13, Randall Griffin, Joey Williamson, “Sweet potato and Irish potato insects”, in Clemson Cooperative Extension Home & Garden Information Center[3]:
- Universally known among growers as the potato bug, the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) was long considered the most dangerous enemy of Irish potatoes.