8 



planting can only be adopted in very heavily infested areas. 

 Ploughing up exhausted plantations is best done immediately the spring 

 crop is removed, especially on small farms. Whatever the size of the 

 farm, it is advisable to plough not later than the end of June, or very 

 early July, or else leave the ground untouched till autumn. Crop 

 rotation is one of the most efficient methods of controlling the weevil 

 on large farms, and the use of poultry in conjunction with rotation is 

 strongly urged, allowing them free range over the plantation after 

 the summer ploughing. No parasites of 0. ovatus are known, but the 

 predatory enemies which assist to control the pest include : the adults 

 and larvae of the Carabid, Aniara farcta, Lee, at least one species of 

 spider, and the common mole. 



Vassiliev (I.). KneeepHafl mhh ropSaian ToncTOHOWKa, MCTpeSjin- 



wmafl ctweHa BT* ronOBKax-b KJieBepa. [[BrucJwjjhagus {Eurytoma) 

 gibbus, Boh., destroying seeds in clover-heads.] — « TpyAbl Biopo no 

 SHTOMonorin YMeHaro KowimeTa fnas. Ynpas. 3. m 3.» [Memoirs 

 of tJie Bureau of Entomology of the Scientific Committee of the 

 Central Board of Land Administration and Agriculture'], Petrograd, 

 1914, xi, no. 3, 7 pp., 6 figs. 



The great majority of species of Chalcidoidea are parasites of 

 insects, only a few species being phytophagous ; to the latter belong 

 Bruchophagus funebris, How., previously regarded as a parasite of 

 Bruchus, but which has been proved by Howard to be a pest of clover, 

 and Bnichophagus {Eurytoma) gibbus, Boh., formerly regarded as a 

 parasite of Apion, and only lately described by Kurdjumov as phyto- 

 phagous. During recent years these pests have often been observed 

 on clover in parts of European Kussia. The author describes and 

 figures the imago of B. gibbus, which in Russia, according to Kurdjumov 

 and Dobrodjev, has two generations, one in May and the other in 

 August. They winter in their larval stage inside the damaged seeds 

 of clover. The eggs are deposited in the heads of clover and probably 

 also in the ovaries and seeds of other species of Papilionaceae, as 

 G. Mayr has reared them from Astragalus glyciphyllus and Lotus corni- 

 culatus, while Bruchophagus funebris also breeds in the seeds of lucerne. 

 The larvae penetrate into the seeds and feed on their contents ; usually 

 one seed is sufficient for the development of one larva, which leaves 

 only an empty shell and pupates inside it. Injury to clover by these pests 

 has already been observed in the governments of Tula, Orel, Vitebsk, 

 Poltava and Kiev, but it is thought that they must also occur in other 

 parts of Russia where clover is grown. According to Portchinsky, 

 the healthy seeds may be separated from those which contain the pest 

 by winnowing ; the remedies recommended by Webster and Folsom 

 against B. funebris may be effective against B. gibbus also, such as, 

 the collection of the clover heads ; the burning of the clover chaff ; 

 the early mowing of clover for hay, in order to prevent its infection 

 with the eggs of the pests and also to hasten the ripening of the seed 

 and thus protect it from the second generation ; the early autumn 

 ploughing of clover fields in order to bury the fallen seeds ; and the 

 destruction of all wild clover on which these pests breed. 



