---
title: "False Potato Beetle"
description: "Leptinotarsa juncta — Insekten & Spinnen. The false potato beetle (Leptinotarsa juncta) is a beetle found primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/de/animal/false-potato-beetle
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# False Potato Beetle

> Leptinotarsa juncta — Insekten & Spinnen. The false potato beetle (Leptinotarsa juncta) is a beetle found primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States.

- Scientific name: *Leptinotarsa juncta*
- Category: `insects` (Insekten & Spinnen)
- Habitats: unknown
- iNaturalist observations: 9567
- Wikidata: [Q3022935](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3022935)
- iNaturalist taxon: [84188](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/84188)

## Names

- en: False Potato Beetle
- nl: False potato beetle

## Countries with the most observations

US (8899), CA (74)

## Summary

The false potato beetle (Leptinotarsa juncta) is a beetle found primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. Its distribution extends to Maine.
Adult beetles emerge from the soil in the late spring or early summer and begin breeding, and a population may go through one to three generations in a summer.
The false potato beetle feeds on solanaceous weeds such as horsenettle, Solanum carolinense. It also feeds on other solanaceous plants, such as species of ground cherry or husk tomato, Physalis spp., and bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara, but no growth and reproduction occurs when feeding on the potato…

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

## Photo

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

Photo: Mirko Schoenitz · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131821464

## Machine access

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