64 
frost, and a large proportion of these doubtless succeed in pupating 
before winter overtakes them. In the insectary, pupation in October 
is the rule. Larvae which hatched September 7 spun cocoons October 
14, and pupated October 16. One larva pupated September 2, and the 
moth emerged June 27. 
The fate of the larvae that feed at the crown of the plant in au- 
tumn is rather uncertain. The earliest ones probably pupate, and some 
of the remainder very likely survive the winter as larvae. We have not 
been able as yet to find any of the larvae in early spring, but in Iowa, 
following a year of heavy infestation, Gossard found full grown larvae 
under rubbish and manure, and partly grown larvae still in the crowns 
of the plants, April 22, tho the number found was only 25 percent of 
that found the preceding autumn. 
Habits. — The moths appear in spring along with the first green 
heads of the red clover. When disturbed they take short rapid zigzag 
flights and come to rest on a clover plant. In the hot sunlight they 
seek the shaded side of a stem or the under side of a leaf, but in the 
cooler and darker parts of the day and in cloudy weather they often 
alight in full view, and close the wings, forming a little brown triangle 
nia'ked with a silvery double crescent as in Figure 11, I'late II. 
The moth, upon alighting, has the peculiar habit, already remarked 
by others, of whirling about in a circle several times, with the head as 
a pivot, and then reversing the movement before settling to rest. No 
explanation for this performance is evident. 
Osborn and Gossard have reported the moths as being especially 
active in early evening, when they hovered over the clover blossoms 
in such numbers as to form a perfect cloud between the observer and 
the sun. 
In clover that is forming heads, nearly all the larvae are at work 
in the heads, but a few are present in unexpanded leaf-buds, eating out 
the interior tissue. 
In first-year clover that has not headed, and in second-year clover 
that has been recently cut, the eggs are laid, singly as usual, on young 
stems and leaflets at or near the base of the plant, where the larvae 
hatch and remain. 
In first-year clover with oats, the moths are abundant in the new 
growth after harvest. Such was the case in a field in Urbana August 
30, 1907, at which time none of the new growth had headed. In an 
adjoining field of second-year clover, the heads of which were nearly 
all brown, the moths had disappeared, leaving the seed-chalcid in 
charge of the crop. In September, a good many green heads occur on 
first-year clover, and in these the moths lay eggs rather abundantly. 
Volunteer clover is always infested by the seed-caterpillar. 
The cocoon is spun in a clover head or at the surface of the 
ground, according to the situation of the larva. Comstock gives twenty 
to thirty days as the pupal period, and mentions that the pupa works its 
way out of the cocoon before giving forth the moth. Osborn and Gos- 
sard have found the pupa-cases in abundance on the ground, from 
which a brood had just issued. 
