INSECTS IXJURIOrS TO CLOVER. 173 



understood. In this country the pest has been noticed 

 since 1876, when it was first found in three counties in 

 western Xew York. Since then it has been noted as doing 

 injury on Long Island and in several parts of Canada. 

 Some ten years later it appeared in Michigan, and in 1894 

 was found in northwestern Ohio. Thus it has not become 

 very generally distributed, and seems to be confined to the 

 Northern States. 



Life-history. — If one tears open a clover-root in an 

 infested field during the winter, he will usually find the 

 beetles hibernating in the burrows. They will not be 

 readily distinguished, as they are scarcely an eighth of an 

 inch Ions: and are of a reddish -brown color much like that 

 of the Inirrow. With the warmer weather of spring they 

 commence burrowing and feeding in the roots, and during 

 the latter part of May the females deposit their eggs along 

 the sides of the tunnels. The eggs are shining white, and 

 are i^laced in the sides of the galleries and then covered 

 and packed with refuse, so as to separate them from the 

 rest of the burrow. In a few days the eggs hatch, and the 

 small white grubs emerge and continue the attack upon 

 the roots. Here they grow fat during the summer months 

 and ultimately transform to pupa?, which again change to 

 beetles during the early fall. This life-history varies con- 

 siderably, and the grubs are often found much earlier and 

 the beetles much later than usual. The spread of the 

 insect occurs very largely in the spring when the beetles 

 fly from field to field, seeking uninfested plants in which 

 to perpetuate their kind. Their entrance is usually made 

 below the surface of the ground, though sometimes the 

 burrow is started from the crown of the plant. 



It has been observed that alsike clover is not so badly 



