CLOVER CULTURE. 



lii 



THE CLOVER STEM BORER. 



head between the eyes, and dimly discernable on the wing 

 covers. 



Clover Stem Borer, (Languria Mozcu di, ) Fabr. In his re- 

 port to the Department of Agriculture for 1879, Prof. J. Henry 

 Comstock, entomologist of the Department, describes a new 

 clover pest then recently discovered, called the Clover Stem 

 Borer. The accompanying illustration will enable the reader 

 to identify the eggs, larvae, pupa, the adult borer and also the 

 manner in which the eggs 

 are laid in the stalk. It 

 seems to be identical with 

 an insect affecting the 

 fall wheat in Kansas and 

 perhaps other sections, 

 and hence is not peculiar 

 to clover. The female 

 lays her eggs in June, ac- 

 cording to Prof. Cook, 

 piercing the stem with 

 her jaws and pushing her 

 eggs clear into the pith. 

 The larvae feed on the pith downward, forming a 

 burrow about six inches long. The pupa is formed 

 at the bottom of this burrow and shortly after- 

 wards the fully developed beetles begin to appear, 

 emerging from the hollow stems from August to 

 October. There is but one brood each year. The beetle 

 hibernates and waits until the plants are in their full vigor in 

 June before depositing her eggs. It will readily be seen that 

 the Western method of cutting clover the last of June or the 

 first of July, and then either pasturing or cutting the second 

 crop for seed will give small chance for this pest to increase. 

 Recent discoveries, however, have shown that a stock of the 

 borers may be kept up indefinitely, from the fact that it lives 

 on quite a number of plants besides clover. It has been 

 found in the sweet clover, in wild thistles, wild lettuce, yarrow 

 and in timothy. It has, however, several parasites, and there 

 is but little danger of it ever becoming a destructive pest. 



Clover Leaf Beetle, (Phytonomus pun tatus). This, like 

 many of our destructive insects, is stated by Prof. Cook to 

 be an imported species, common in Germany, prevailing in 

 Canada since 1853, appearing in New York in 1881, and later, 

 in 1884, at Buffalo, N. Y. It appeared in northeastern 

 Ohio in 1891, and recently near Cincinnati, Ohio. The 

 following illustration will give our readers an idea of 

 the beetle at its work, in which a represents the egg en- 



