---
title: "Colorado Potato Beetle"
description: "Leptinotarsa decemlineata — Insects & spiders. The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata; also known as the Colorado beetle, the ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle, and the potato bug) is a beetle known for being a major pest of potato crops."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/colorado-potato-beetle
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Colorado Potato Beetle

> Leptinotarsa decemlineata — Insects & spiders. The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata; also known as the Colorado beetle, the ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle, and the potato bug) is a beetle known for being a major pest of potato crops.

- Scientific name: *Leptinotarsa decemlineata*
- Category: `insects` (Insects & spiders)
- Habitats: `farm` (Farm)
- iNaturalist observations: 20479
- Wikidata: [Q156954](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q156954)
- iNaturalist taxon: [84778](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/84778)

## Names

- en: Colorado Potato Beetle
- de: Kartoffelkäfer
- es: Escarabajo de la papa
- fr: Doryphore
- nl: Coloradokever
- pt: Escaravelho da batateira
- pl: Stonka ziemniaczana

## Countries with the most observations

US (4945), DE (2504), RU (1655), CA (1642), FR (946), AT (856), UA (834), IT (640), PL (624), BE (548), CZ (472), NL (471)

## Summary

The Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata; also known as the Colorado beetle, the ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle, and the potato bug) is a beetle known for being a major pest of potato crops. It is about 10 mm (3⁄8 in) long, with a bright yellow/orange body and five bold brown stripes along the length of each of its wings. Native to the Rocky Mountains, it spread rapidly in potato crops across the United States and then Europe from 1859 onwards.
The Colorado potato beetle was first observed in 1811 by Thomas Nuttall and was formally described in 1824 by American entomologist Thomas Say…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_potato_beetle

## Photo

![Colorado Potato Beetle](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/colorado-potato-beetle/medium.jpg)

Photo: mixbass · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/371072498

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/colorado-potato-beetle?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).