> 4 



Without, dwelling longer upon these considerations, permit me to pass 

 directly to a brief notice of a few injurious insects which have come 

 within my notice during the past year a year, it may be incidentally 

 remarked, so signalized by a scarcity of insects, that the work of col- 

 lecting for the cabinet, and for scientific study, was almost abandoned. 

 The report made at the meeting of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, at St. Louis, in August last, from entomolo- 

 gists representing the various portions of the United States, was unani- 

 mous, that of the Noctuidae (a family of the moths comprising the cut- 

 worms and a large proportion of the species most detrimental to the 

 agriculturist), not one individual was to be found, where a hundred were 

 to be met with the preceding year. 



Your attention will first be invited to an insect which now for the first 

 time claims local habitation and a name in our list of insect foes. It 

 may be called 



THE CLOVER-SEED FLY Cecidomyia trifolii n. sp. 



Early in the month of June, 1877, some heads of red clover (Trifolium 

 pratense) were brought to rne by Mr. T. L. Harison, Secretary of the New 

 York State Agricultural Society, and my attention was called to some small, 

 worm-like creatures contained within the heads, and apparently feed- 

 ing upon the seeds. From their acutely elliptical form and vermi- 

 form movements when taken from the clover and placed upon a table, 

 they seemed to be the larvae of some species of dipterous insect. All the 

 writers upon economic entomology at my command, American and Euro- 

 pean, were searched for a notice of the insect, but no mention of it was found. 



During the same month, examination of heads of clover collected 

 at West Albany, at West Troy, and it is believed at one or two other 

 localities in the State, was made by Mr. Charles H. Peck, State Botanist, 

 whose attention had been called to the insect, and the larvae were dis- 

 covered within them. 



On the 19th of the same month, during a field meeting of the Troy 

 Scientific Association held at Schroon Lake, Warren county, N. Y., the 

 larvae, in small numbers, were found by me in some heads plucked in the 

 village of Schroon. Subsequently my engagements were of such a 

 nature, that I made no further observations on the "clover-seed worm" 

 during the season. 



In the fore part of August, 1878, heads of red clover were handed to 

 me by Mr. Harison, which were said to have been taken from an infested 

 field, but I failed to detect the presence of larvae. On the 19th of the 

 same month, six heads were sent from the President of your Society, Mr. 

 George W. Hoffman, of Elmira, N. Y. They contained very few seeds, 

 but the examination was not sufficiently thorough to enable me to say 

 whether the seeds had not been formed, or if their substance had been 

 devoured by the larvae the latter was thought at the time to be the 

 explanation of their paucity. Within some of the pods larvae were 

 found very nearly filling their interior. 



Upon picking the flowers apart and strewing them upon a black surface, 

 the larvae readily left their concealment and commenced traveling over the 

 table. The flowers were shaken several times during a half-hour, until 

 110 more larvae emerged from them. A number of the pods were then 

 opened, but all were found deserted by the occupants which they may 

 have contained. It is probable that the larger number of the larvae had 

 matured and left the heads before they were received by me. 



