CLOVER SEED MIDGE. 891 



The pupa is orange, with brown eyes. It is found in a tough 

 silken cocoon with more or less earth sticking to it, 



As will be seen by the figures the flies resemble closely the 

 wheat midge, C. tritici. The abdomen is red, thorax brownish- 

 red. The antennae are 15-jointed in the male, and 16 in the fe- 

 male. The wings are hairy, the palpi and ovepositor each four 

 jointed. The male is about 1.5 m m long, the female about 

 3mm. The male expands about 3.5 m m, the female 4mm. 

 The size varies a little. The dark scales obscure the red color, 

 so that the flies appear dark. Underneath the color is yellowish- 

 gray. As with the wheat midge and Hessian fly the ovepositor 

 and clasping organs are very prominent. 



The eggs are pushed, by means of the ovipositor, down into 

 the heads of red or white clover, and lodged between the hairs 

 that surround the separate florets. They are not glued nor 

 placed in the florets. As with the Hessian fly the eggs may be 

 laid singly, or in groups of two, three, four or five. As many as 

 50 eggs are sometimes placed in a single head of clover. 



The larva affects each seed much as does the wheat midge each 

 wheat kernel. 



After absorbing the life from the seed the larva, like the mag- 

 got of the wheat midge, leaves the seed and wriggles till it es- 

 capes from the clover head and falls to the earth. Often the 

 head of clover seems alive as a maggot pushes from nearly every 

 seed in its effort to reach the ground. The pupa is found in its 

 cocoon just beneath or upon the earth, under some protecting 

 leaf, etc. The flies have been seen in New York in May, Au- 

 gust, and quite likely some flies may issue in October. Thus 

 there are surely two broods in New York, and possibly three. 

 There are certainly three farther South. The larvae will be seen 

 full grown in the seed at the North in May, in July, and again 

 in September. They probably pass the winter as pupae. 



Of late the 'larvae have been found in seed in the market. 



