218 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



tion has sometimes been exceedingly severe. In any event, 

 every head destroyed means the loss of more than one hundred 

 seeds. 



The larvce become full grown in four to five weeks. The full 

 grown caterpillar is about one-third inch long and varies in color 

 from dirty-white tinged with green to orange, according to the 

 food. The larva spins an oval white silken cocoon, two-fifths 

 inch long, either in the head or at the surface of the ground, 

 which is more or less covered with bits of excrement and floral tis- 

 sue. The pupa is one-fifth inch long, brown, with the thorax and 

 wing-cases darker, and with two transverse rows of teeth on the 

 back of the abdominal segments except the last, which bears six 

 stout blackish hooks. at the tip. The pupal stage lasts two to 

 three weeks and a second generation of moths emerges about the 

 third week of July (in central Illinois) . The life cycle is repeated 

 in the same manner and a third generation of moths appears about 

 September 1st. The larvae of the last brood feed either in imma- 

 ture clover-heads or at the crown of the plant. Most of them 

 become full grown and transform to pupae, in which stage they 

 hibernate over winter, while others become full grown, but fail to 

 pupate and hibernate under rubbish. 



Control. Cutting and storing the hay crop early in June as 

 advised for the clover-seed midge will kill the larvae while still 

 in the heads. " The nay should be handled lightly and stacked 

 or stored as soon as possible. Osborn and Gossard * have attested 

 the value of this method, and have given these further recommenda- 

 tions: (1) Cut volunteer clover in early June and dispose of the 

 heads speedily; (2) do not allow clover to run for more than two 

 years; (3) sow seed on land remote from old fields; (4) pasture 

 clover in the fall of the first year; (5) plow an old clover-field 

 under in October or November or in early spring, then harrow 

 and roll. These practices operate at the same time against 

 several other clover pests." Folsom. 



* Osborn and Gossard, Insect Life, Vol. IV, p. 254; Bulletins 14 and 15, 

 Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta.; 22d Report Entomological Society of Ontario, p. 74. 

 Gossard, H. A., Bulletin 19, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta. 



