384 



CLOVER-LEAF MIDGE. 



congener, which is doing widespread and most serious harm, it 

 will be of minor economic importance. 



As will be noticed it is closely related to the well-known Hes- 

 sian fly and wheat midge, so destructive to the wheat crop. 



Fig. 141 shows the clover 

 leaf concealing the larva; 

 one leaf spread open exhib- 

 its the cocoons of the in- 

 sect, the larva and midge 

 B U or fly. The maggots are 



Fig, 141. folded in the leaflets of the 



clover, and are at first wliite, but later assume an orange hue. 

 When full grown this footless larva is 1.5 m m (.059 of an inch) 

 long. The pupte are enclosed in white delicate cocoons, fastened 

 between the sides of the folded leaflets. See fig. The color of 

 pupa is pale orange. Eyes dark, folded appendages brown. The 

 fly is brown in color with yellowish hairs on the thorax. The 

 female is 1.6 m m long, the male a little shorter. Except that 

 the fly is a little smaller, and that the female has fourteen in- 

 stead of sixteen joints to the antennae, it is almost exactly like 

 the clover seed midge, which will be more fully described and. 

 illustrated as its importance demands. The minute eggs, front 

 two to twenty, are laid in the creases of the leaflets either of the 

 red or white clover. In June the larva absorbs the juices of the 

 leaflet, causing it to turn brown and to become slightly thick- 

 ened, showing the tendency to form galls, which is peculiar to 

 many Oecidomyian maggots. The irritation causes the leaflets 

 to fold, thus forming a safe domicile for the defenceless larvae. 

 Late in June or early in July the flies come forth. 



From the exposed condition of this insect it is very likely to 

 become the prey of parasitic insects, nnd so never become very 

 numerous. Even in considerable numbers it does no very se- 



