238 



INSECTS AFFECTING CLOVER. 



expense of the young seeds. It hatches from eggs laid 



by a very small, two- 

 winged fly (Fig. 127, 

 a), similar to the 

 Hessian Fly in ap- 

 pearance. The fe- 

 male is provided 

 with a long oviposi- 

 tor with which she 

 pushes her eggs in 

 among the young 

 flowers. When the 



Fig. 127. Clover Seed-midge: a, ily; t, larva. -I • f 11 „,„„... 



Magnified. iai\a lb IU11 glOTUl 



(b) it wriggles its way out of the head and falls to 

 the ground, where at or just beneath the soil surface, 

 it forms a slight cocoon, within which it changes to 

 the pupa state. About ten days later the flies emerge 

 to lay eggs for another brood. In the Northern 

 States there are two broods each season, while at the 

 South there are at least three, and possibly more. 

 Clover fields infested by this insect are at once dis- 

 tinguished by the unnatural condition of the heads 

 at time of blossoming: instead of being red with 

 bloom, the heads are green and dwarfed on account 

 of the undeveloped florets. 



Remedies. — The best preventive of the injuries 

 of this insect yet suggested is that of mowing the 

 field about the middle of May (in the latitude of 

 central Ohio) when the green heads are just forming, 

 and leaving the partial crop thus cut on the ground 



