58 
find seeds soft enough for oviposition, but this possibihty was too shght 
to account for the immense number of late-emerging chalcids. Fur- 
thermore, any larv^ from eggs laid in the jars of clover heads would 
soon be disposed of by the drying and shriveling of the green seeds. I 
could not find any evidence of re-oviposition. 
There is one source of possible confusion that must be guarded 
against in studying the life history of this chalcid. There emerges 
from the clover heads, along with B. funebris, another chalcid, Tetras- 
ticlins bruchophagi Ashm. MS., so named upon the assumption that it 
is a parasite of the clover seed-chalcid. This Tetrastichus is so much 
like the Bruchophagus in general appearance that it might hastily be 
mistaken for the latter, tho many differences between the two appear 
under the microscope. 
Habits. — While the clover heads are green, in spring, few if any 
of the seed-chalcids will be found ; but when they begin to turn brown, 
the chalcids appear on them. The males appear four or five days 
earlier than the females, and both sexes frequent the clover heads, but 
the males do not rush about and explore the recesses of the clover head 
in the way that the females do. 
On warm sunny days the chalcids are most active, and then most 
of the eggs are laid. On rainy days both sexes remain quietly in the 
clover heads. They make their home among the florets, and there, at 
length, their dead bodies are to be found. 
Brown ripe clover heads give the female much trouble, for she 
can not insert her ovipositor into a hard seed ; green heads she passes 
by ; florets in full bloom receive some attention and some eggs ; but 
most of the eggs are laid in florets with withering corollas. 
The males are quick to fly when one brings a hand lens near them, 
but the busy females occasion the observer less difficulty. The female 
squeezes in and out among the florets, often working her way deep into 
the flower head, so that one must cautiously spread the florets apart 
in order to follow her movements. Every now and then she stops to 
clean her antenn?e with the front legs, or her wings and abdomen by 
passing the hind legs backward. With the tips of her palpitating an- 
tennae she keeps touching the florets, especially the calyx, as if testing 
it. At length she proceeds to lay an egg, and usually pierces the side 
of the calyx tube, tho sometimes she stands on the top of the calyx, 
between the calyx lobes and the corolla. Bending the end of the abdo- 
men forward under the body, she releases the long needlelike ovipos- 
itor and thrusts it into the calyx ; then the abdomen recovers its normal 
form, but the ovipositor, at right angles to the body, remains inserted 
in the wall of the calyx, and is pushed and Avriggled until its tip has 
entered the young seed. After three to twelve minutes the organ is 
withdrawn and rapidly slipped back into place. Sometimes a tiny col- 
orless drop of fluid is seen at the tip of the ovipositor just before it 
is thrust into the calyx. 
The observer, having identified the floret during the process of 
oviposition, can then pry it out with a knife and carry it back to be 
