What are these playground bugs?
Hello!
We are so happy to have found your web site! We are a class of 4 and 5 year olds in PA. We take photos of bugs everyday but then we have no clue what they are. We used the photos on your site to identify some of the bugs we have photographed. Like the Wheel Bug that visited us last week. The first photo included is of a roundish bug. We have ben calling it by the wrong name. Could you please give us the correct name for our playground bug friend? THANK YOU! Obviously we REALLY need a bug encyclopedia! THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!
Fours and Fives in PA
Dear four and five year olds,
I’m so happy to see you are budding entomologists. Your round bug is a Colorado Potato Beetle, once native to the Rocky Mountains, but now naturalized wherever potatoes and other solanaceous plants are cultivated. It is considered a pest and both adults and the fat grubs can do considerable damage to the leaves of potato plants and their relatives.
I just found a dead Colorado Potato Beetle in western Morris County, New Jersey … right next to Sussex County NJ. What are they doing here? I notice they are called Colorado Potato Beetles.
Any info appreciated. This is the only site I find a picture of this beetle and other sites that list bugs by state do not show them in either NJ or PA as I looked at the list of beetles for both states.
According to BugGuide: “Before the introduction of the potato in the US this beetle was confined to Colorado and neighboring states feeding on some native species of Solanum (night shade), now it has spread to most potato growing areas. It has been transported to Europe where it has become a serious pest.” The Data Page on BugGuide reports the Colorado Potato Beetle in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.