200 REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



with, and the other a yellowish ichneumonid, the pupa of which was in* 

 closed in a delicate white silken cocoon. 



It seems probable that where clover is regularly cut in early summer 

 and again in fall this insect will not increase to any alarming extent; 

 but where this is neglected, or where there is much waste clover, it may 

 do considerable damage. 



We append a more extended description of the larva. 



Languria mozardi. 



Larva. — Length 8""° ; color liglit yellow; tips of mandibles and an eiI horns brown. 

 Bubcylindrical in shape, the aual segment only being narrower than the j)receding 

 joint. Average width, .9""". Thoracic legs long and stout; only one pro^j leg, which 

 is under the anal segment. The anal segment is armed upon its dorso-posterior border 

 with two upward-curved acute hooks placed close together. The head is broad, some- 

 what flattened dorso-ventrally. Antennae prominent, 4-jointed, 3d joint longest, 4th 

 joint slender. Labrum broad, rounded, with a row of small pilifinous tubercles at its 

 anterior border. Mandibles, 3 toothed. Maxillary palpi, 3 jointed. Labrum rounded 

 anteriorly J labial palpi 2-joiuted, stout. 



THE CLOVER OSCINIS. 



(Oscinis trifoUi, Burgess [n. sp.].) 

 Order Diptera ; family OaciNiDAE. 



Mining the upper surface of the leaves of Trifolium repens (white clover) ; small, green- 

 ish-white maggots, transforming under ground, and ultimately becoming active, 

 minute, two-winged flies, yellow and black in color. 



If the leaves of white clover {Trifolium repens) in the District of Co- 

 lumbia and vicinity (we are not aware that it will be the case elsewhere) 

 be examined some time during the month of June, many of them will 

 be found to be mined under the ujiper membrane in a curious and irreg- 

 ular manner. With some leaves the whole upper surface will seem to 

 have been separated and the parenchyma eaten out; with others the 

 mine will not occupy more than a third of the surface. The mined por- 

 tion of the leaf has a greenish-white color, while the lines of black ex- 

 crement plainly marking the course of the inhabitant of the mine can 

 be easily .?een, and add very much to the peculiar appearance of the 

 leaf. Removing the u]ii)er cuticle, the miner is found to be a very small, 

 rather slender, greenish-white maggot, 1.7™'" (.068 inch) in length, taper- 

 ing toward the head. The head and first segment taken together re- 

 semble much, when highly magnified and viewed from the side, the head 

 of a fat pig, the prothoracic spiracular tubercles appearing like ears. 

 The last joint of the body is prolonged above into two rather large con- 

 ical tubercles, each of which is at its extremity divided into three quite 

 prominent downward-curved lobes. Besides these dorsal tubercles the 

 anal segment has also a pair of postero-lateral tubercles and a pair of 

 ventral ones. The three thoracic segments also have each a pair of 

 small ventral tubercles which assist in locomotion, and may be rudi- 

 mentary legs. 



Toward the latter part of June these larvae break through the upper 

 leaf skin and fall to the gi'ound, where they work their way for a short 

 distance beneath the surface and traii.^^form in an hour within oval, yel- 

 lowish-brown puparia, about which there is nothing sufficiently charac- 

 teristic to merit description. 



In somewhat less than two weeks the perfect flies begin to make their 

 appearance. They are very small, about l.S'""" (.05 inch) in length, stout, 



