potato bug

potato bug (plural potato bugs)

1. The Jerusalem cricket, various insects of the genus Stenopelmatus.
2. The woodlouse, various terrestrial crustaceans of suborder Oniscidea.
3. Any of various insects that feed on or harm potato plants.
   • 1838, “Legislating; or, the rival whiskers”, in The Hesperian‎, 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.”

   1. 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.

   2. The Colorado beetle or Colorado potato bug, Leptinotarsa decemlineata.
      • 1995, Willis Conner Sorensen, Brethren of the Net‎, 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 and Joey Williamson, “Sweet potato and Irish potato insects”, in Clemson Cooperative Extension Home & Garden Information Center‎:

        Universally known among growers as the potato bug, the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) was long considered the most dangerous enemy of Irish potatoes.