{"product_id":"colorado-potato-beetle-leptinotarsa-decemlineata","title":"Colorado Potato Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Colorado Potato Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) looks almost deliberately designed - bold black-and-yellow striped wing cases, a neatly spotted orange thorax, and a clean graphic quality that belies its status as one of the most economically destructive insects in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Colorado Potato Beetle is native to the Rocky Mountain region of North America, where it originally fed on wild members of the nightshade family. When potato cultivation spread westward in the mid-19th century, the beetle switched hosts with devastating efficiency. By the 1870s it had reached the Atlantic coast, and within decades it had crossed the ocean to Europe. Today it is found across much of the Northern Hemisphere and remains one of the most damaging pests of potato crops worldwide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe beetle's success is partly due to its remarkable ability to develop resistance to pesticides - it has overcome nearly every chemical control thrown at it, including DDT, and is resistant to more classes of insecticide than almost any other species. This adaptability has made it a model organism for studying the evolution of resistance and has driven research into biological control methods. Few insects demonstrate quite so clearly that the most effective designs in nature are not always the ones we would choose.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Axisophy","offers":[{"title":"Large (50 × 70 cm | 20 × 28 in)","offer_id":45864086438049,"sku":"APW-BUG-CPB-P-500x700-AM-COL","price":50.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"XLarge (70 × 100 cm | 28 × 40 in)","offer_id":45864086470817,"sku":"APW-BUG-CPB-P-700x1000-AM-COL","price":80.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0483\/1546\/5889\/files\/Axisophy-ColoradoPotatoBeetle-mockup-1.jpg?v=1770826458","url":"https:\/\/axisophy.com\/products\/colorado-potato-beetle-leptinotarsa-decemlineata","provider":"Axisophy","version":"1.0","type":"link"}