LIKK HISTORY 



Pig. 6. —The 



/ 



It is probable that the insect passes the winter in the seed within out- 

 standing clover heads in the field, and it may do so either as larva or 

 pupa. 



Doctor Hopkins and Mr. E. S. G. Titus, both of whom have witnessed 

 oviposition, state that the female crawls down among the 

 florets and pushes her egg into the seed, which at this time 

 is in a semifluid state. As this is practical]}' the condition 

 of the seed until it becomes full sized and begins to harden, 

 it is not yet clear just how the larva feeds during this time, 

 but in all cases the larva develops within the seed, and 

 from it the adult emerges. Mr. Titus found that a larva 

 sometimes abandons one seed and, eating its way through 

 the inclosing floret into an adjoining one, enters another 

 seed. In one instance observed, a single larva appeared to 

 clover-seed | iave j n this wav readied and partly devoured three seeds. 



cha'cis: Egg, 



highly mag- This would account for the shrunken or partly developed 

 mfied. ions- seeds, frequently charged up to the midge. Developing 

 within the seed, it seems probable that the adults issue 

 therefrom at the usual time when the seed of the second bloom has 

 begun to form, and that the same mode of pro- 

 cedure is followed' as before, except that the 

 adults from these seeds do not appear until late 

 in the following spring or early in the summer. 

 While future investigations may necessitate mod- 

 ifications of this supposed life cycle, it will prob- 

 ably be found, in the main, correct, and, if so, 

 it would seem that the less number of seeds pro- 

 duced by the first bloom might act as a restraint 

 upon the excessive abundance of the insect in 

 the second. However, as cases are known in which from 50 to 85 per 

 cent of the seeds of a single head were infested, it will 

 readily be seen how serious a pest it can become in the 

 clover field with no other restraint put upon its increase. 

 Its presence is most assuredly never beneficial. 



FOOD HABITS AND EFFECTS UPON THE PLANT. 



The food plants are known to include the seed of red and 



Pig. 8.-The crimson clovers and alfalfa, 

 clover-seed _, 



chaicis: Pa- There appears to be no visible effect upon any part of 



pa ' much the plant attacked except the seed. Even badly infested 



(Original.) bends can not be distinguished from those uninfested. At 



present it seems that a serious loss to the clover-seed crop 



may he caused by this insect, without the farmers being in any way 



able to account therefor, as the shriveled and imperfect seeds are mostly 



1 



) 



i«. 7 —The clover-seed chai- 

 cis : Larva, much enlarged ; 

 head at right, more enlarged. 



(Original.) 



