attributed to adverse meteoroloo;ical conditions. The pest seems 

 to have spread much more rapidly westward than southward, as it 

 probably occurs in the East nearly to the Mississippi River; but it 

 has attracted no attention along the Atlantic coast south of Penn- 

 sylvania. In that State, however, the writer found it abundant around 

 Chambersburg, but not disastrously so, in October, 1905. It has not 

 been reported at all from the vicinit}^ of Washington, D. C. It is cer- 

 tainly not seriousl}^ injurious in the Xew Eng- 

 land States at the present time, the late Dr. 

 James Fletcher reported a similar state of 

 affairs in Ontario, Canada, and we do not 

 receive any reports of its occurrence between 

 the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. 

 In Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and south- 

 ern Michigan it is becoming more and more 

 destructive. 



Fig. 2.— The clover root-borer: 

 Larva or grub. Much en- 

 larged. (Author's illustra- 

 tion. ) 



DESCRIPTION OF THE INSECT. 



The fully developed insect is a small, dark- 

 brown, hard-bodied beetle, shown enlarged in figure 1. 



The larva, or grub, shown enlarged in figure 2, is about an eighth 

 of an inch long, dingy white, with honey-yellow head and brown jaws. 



The pupa (fig. 3) is even smaller than the larva, also dingy white, 

 with two minute spinous projections on the top of the head and two 

 somewhat larger ones at the anal extremity. The eggs are elliptical, 

 white, and minute, yet large enough to be seen with the unaided eye. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



In the East there is certainly but one generation annually, though 

 this appears to be long drawn out, and scattering indi- 

 vidual larvse and pupse may be found throughout every 

 month of the year. The finding of eggs as late as Sep- 

 tember 18 has been reported from Micliigan. As a rule, 

 however, the insects pass the winter in the adult stage 

 (fig. 1 ) within the roots where they developed. During 

 May they abandon the old roots and seek out fresh 

 plants or fields in which to lay their eggs. The eggs 

 are mostly deposited between the middle of May and 

 June 20. The female gouges out a shallow cavity, 

 more often in the crown of the plant, sometimes at 

 the sides of the root even 2 or 3 inches below the 

 crown, and in this places, singly, but not far separated, 

 about half a dozen pale whitish, elliptical, very minute 

 eggs. These hatch in about a week, and the larvae (fig. 2) for a time 



[Cir. 119] 



Fig. 3.— The clover 

 root - borer: 

 Pupa. Much en- 

 largcd. (.\u- 

 thor's illustra- 

 tion.) 



