drops to the ground, into which it usually descends a short distance. 

 Here it forms a tough silken cocoon, to which particles of earth adhere, 

 giving it the superficial appearance of a little lump of soil. From the 

 cocoons the adults emerge in time to oviposit in the second or seed crop 

 of bloom, and the same mode of procedure is gone through with again. 

 except that this time the insect hibernates in the cocoon and the midges 

 do not appear until the following spring. 



It will thus be observed that there are two annual generations, the flies 

 appearing simultaneously with the first and second blooming periods 

 of the clover. While they thus appear earlier in the South than in the 

 North, it is doubtful if there are more than two broods throughout the 

 area over which red clover ( Trifolium pratense) is grown, 

 though the broods may be more prolonged or widely sep- 

 arated to the southward. 



EFFECT UPON THE PLANT. 



There is no material effect on the stem or foliage, but 

 the heads quickly indicate the presence of the maggots 

 by failure of the florets to develop, becoming reduced in 

 size, often distorted, and lacking the familiar pinkish color 

 more or less. In fact, the abundance of the pest may be 

 approximately estimated by the appearance of a clover 

 held during the blooming season. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Fig. 4.— Clover- 

 flowermidge: 



a, larva en- 

 larged, ven- 

 tral view : l>. 

 head i etract- 

 ed, highly 

 in a gn i li e it . 

 (Riley.) 



Although the pest did not attract more than local atten- 

 tion until 1878 and w 7 as not described until a year later, 

 there is considerable evidence indicating that it was injuri- 

 ous in New England at least thirty years prior to these 

 dates. Dr. S. A. Forbes, also, found good evidence of its 

 occurrence in Illinois at about the time of its discovery in 

 New York by Lintner. One of the writer's assistants, Mr. ('<. I. Reeves, 

 found it occurring in Nebraska in destructive abundance in 1904, though 

 Prof. Lawrence Bruner did not know of its occurrence in that State in 

 1898. The late Miss Ormerod reported its occurrence in England in 

 1890 and stated that it had probably been present in the clover fields 

 there for several years. In America it probably occurs wherever mam- 

 moth, crimson, white, or the common red clovers are grown. 



NATURAl 



;nemies. 



One of the first parasites to be reared was bred in 1ST'.), at Washing- 

 ton, 1). C, from material sent from New York. It is a minute black 

 four-winged fly 1 which the writer reared also from the larva' of the wheat 



Anopedias error Fitch, family Platygasteridse. 



