200 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



The Clover-seed Midge * 



The Clover-seed Midge seems to occur wherever red and 

 white clover is grown in this country, and is a pest which must 

 be taken into consideration in raising seed, for frequently it is 

 not recognized as the cause of the failure of the seed crop. Alsike 

 clover, and probably mammoth clover, is practically uninjured, 

 as it flowers enough later to escape attack, nor is alfalfa infested. 



Life History. The parent of all this trouble is a small midge, 

 one-twelfth inch long, with black head and thorax and reddish 



FIG. 167. The clover-flower midge (Dasyneura leguminicola): a, enlarged 

 side view of female, with scales denuded, to show more clearly the struc- 

 ture; 6, head, more highly magnified, to show structure of the eye, palpi, 

 and basal joints of antennae; c, tip of ovipositor, highly magnified and 

 showing at end of next to last joint the manner in which it is clothed with 

 minute hairs; d, highly magnified antennal joints, their minute hairy 

 clothing shown on the lower one; 2, a, larva enlarged, ventral view; 

 6, head retracted, highly magnified. (After Riley.) 



abdomen, so small, indeed, that it will rarely be noticed. The 

 antennae have sixteen or seventeen segments, and the wings 

 have but few veins, as shown in Fig. 167. The female bears a 

 slender retractile ovipositor which, when extended from the tip 

 of the abdomen, is fully as long as the body, while the tip of the 

 abdomen of the male is furnished with clasping organs. The 

 midges appear in late spring just as the clover commences to 

 head. The eggs are laid among the hairy spines of the clover- 

 head or beneath the bracts around it, are yellowish to orange 



* Dasyneura leguminicola Lintner. Family Cecidomyiidce. Also called 

 the Clover-flower Midge. See Farmers' Bulletin 971, U. S. Dept. Agr. 



