ENTOMOLOGY 199 



steps like a measuring worm. When full-grown it spins a cocoon 

 in a little nest prepared by tying a few leaves together, wherein it 

 changes to the pupal condition to emerge soon as an adult moth. 

 The moth is prettily marked with grayish and brown. It measures 

 about one and one-half inches from tip to tip of its extended wings. 

 The flight of this moth is jerky and quite rapid. When disturbed 

 it flies a short distance and usually dives behind some plant, going 

 into hiding, where it remains some time unless disturbed. There 

 are several generations each year, but in spite of this the increase is 

 seldom sufficient to destroy a crop. Among the remedies suggested 

 for its destruction is fall plowing, preferably in October. We would 

 add that plowing is really not necessary in the majority of cases, be- 

 cause the injury is usually slight. 



Clover Leaf-Hopper. A small leaf-hopper about one-eighth of 

 an inch in length is the clover leaf-hopper. Prof. Herbert Osborn 

 and H. A. Gossard, then of the Iowa Station, describe this creature 

 as feeding voraciously on clover, besides several other plants, such as 

 sugar beets, cabbages, rutabagas, and blue grass. It is an insect of 

 minor importance, and is one of the pests that hibernates in rubbish. 

 When it demands attention, clean culture is indicated. 



Clover Leaf-Beetle.* Among the important enemies of clover 

 must be reckoned the leaf-weevil, a snout beetle which arrived here 

 only in comparatively recent years, and whose native home is Eu- 

 rope. The adult beetle is dull-brown in color, much lighter on the 

 sides, and covered with minute, yellowish hairs. It has a stout beak, 

 or snout, curled downward and backward under the body, but clearly 

 visible in profile. The beetle is plump, and about three-eighths of 

 an inch in length. It is quite commonly seen during the autumn 

 on roadside plants, on sidewalks and on buildings, etc. For the 

 most part, at least, the winter is passed in the larval stage, the young 

 grubs or larvae attacking the fresh clover plants in the spring, feed- 

 ing on the leaves. At night they venture boldly out and devour the 

 leaves, but during the daytime are more or less concealed near the 

 bases of the plants. In appearance these larvae are almost slug-like, 

 footless, and green in color with a lighter stripe running down the 

 back. They reach the length of about half an inch when full grown, 

 at which time they spin beautiful fine-meshed, lace cocoons, usually, 

 though not always, at the surface of the ground. The cocoons are 

 elliptical and about three-eighths of an inch in length, and of a 

 light-greenish color. In July and later the beetles appear, feeding 

 also on the clover plants. 



Fortunately for us the clover-weevil, which has all the charac- 

 teristics of a first-class pest, is kept in check by a fungous disease, a 

 fungus that flourishes on the living bodies of the larvae and kills 

 them in great numbers. Curiously enough, larvae attacked by the 

 disease are impelled to climb up on spears of grass around which they 

 wrap their bodies and die. The spores or seed-like bodies of the fun- 

 gus are thus thrown to some distance, and falling on other larva? 

 spread the disease. Epidemics of the disease usually follow attacks 

 of the weevil, so that it is ordinarily held in cheek and reduced to 



See illustration on page 357 



