24 CLOVER. [1899 



in the year 1886, when heads of Purple Clover infested by Clover 

 Weevil were sent from Girleston, West Buckland, Somerset, where 

 the maggots were doing much harm to seeding Clover. About fifty 

 acres (which were being saved for seed) were noticed to be infested by 

 small white maggots, which were feeding at the base of the florets, 

 and it was stated that every field of Clover in that neighbourhood was 

 similarly attacked. 



At the same time a similar attack on seeding Clover was reported 

 from the neighbourhood of Enmore Park, Bridgwater. In this instance 

 it was stated that in each head there were small white maggots, 

 generally five or six in number ; and that whole crops had been 

 destroyed, the observer having found "scarcely a single plant un- 

 attacked." 



Here also I found Apion maggots in the Clover-heads sent ; little 

 fleshy white maggots, with brown heads, of the shape figured at 2, and 

 3, magnified, p. 20. The maggot was of the characteristic form of 

 Apion larvae, that is, legless, but with the front segments somewhat 

 enlarged below, and tubercled so as to aid in power of progression. 

 The maggots lay also, as customary, somewhat curved together. 



After careful examination of the Somersetshire specimens, especi- 

 ally of the very minute portion of the leg- joint called the trochanter, 

 I am inclined to think that both A. apricans and A. trifolii were 

 present. 



The trochanter is an exceedingly small portion of the leg, placed 

 immediately above ihe femur, or thigh, and intermediate between the 

 femur and another small joint or portion called the coxa, which is 

 affixed to the body of the beetle. The entire leg thus consists of coxa; 

 trochanter ; femur, or thigh; tibia, or shank; and tarsus, or foot. And 

 A. trifolii may be distinguished from A. apricans (see also preceding 

 page) " by having the anterior trochanters pitchy, and the four posterior 

 trochanters black, whereas in the latter species they are all rufous."* 



Prevention and Remedy. — Some leading points as to these may be 

 found by observation of the broad scale infestations of the weevils 

 themselves, independently of the maggot-attacks in the flower-heads. 



In a record before mef an observation is given of the case of a 

 field of Clover twice mown, when (in September) the part of the field 

 near the stack had been lately attacked by a small black weevil, which 

 advanced in a semicircle, leaving only the fibre. It was estimated that 

 on some of the leaves there were as many as, or more than, a hundred 

 weevils. 



In another observation quoted in the same paper from the report 



* See • British Coleoptera,' vol. v. p. 149, by Canon Fowler. 

 t See Curtis's ' Farm Insects,' p. 477. 



