692 Grasses and Leguminous Crops in New York 



THE clover flower-midge 



Dasyiiewa legumiriicola Lintner 



The clover-midge is generally distributed throughout New 



York, where it is one of the most important causes for the 



failure of the seed crop. It 



was first discovered in the 



vicinity of Albany in the 



late seventies. This pest is 



usually associated with the 



clover-seed chalcid and it is 



often difficult to determine 



which is responsible for the 



greater part of the damage. 



The parent insect is a 



minute, delicate, two-winged 



fly about one-twelfth inch in 



length. The head and thorax 



are black and the abdomen 



reddish. The flies appear 

 Fig. 663. The Clover Flower-Midge, ^^^ ^j^g ^i^^^j. f^^i^^ ^j^g^^ ^j^g 

 Female. 

 (Redrawn after Webster) pl^nts aro beginning to head. 



The female (Fig. 663) is 

 provided with an extensile ovipositor at the tip of the abdomen by 

 means of which she is enabled to insert her minute yellowish 

 to orange eggs down into the flower-head, where they are glued 

 to the hairs of the calyx tube. The eggs hatch in about three 

 days aiid the young maggot works its way between the petals of 

 the Unopened flower, enters the ovary, and devours its contents. 

 The infested flower-buds remain aborted and the corolla, usually 

 does not open. ^Miere a large proportion of the flower buds are 

 infested the head' remains gTeen or becomes distorted. The larvae 

 feed during June and emerge from the heads about the first of 

 Julv. The mature maggots are about one-twentieth inch in 

 length and white to orange in color. On leaving the heads they 

 descend to the ground where most of them spin cocoons within 

 which they pupate. The insect remains in the pupal state for 

 about three weeks. The flies of the second brood are most abun- 

 dant during the last week of July and the first half of August. 



