2 BUIiLETIlSr 812, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



growing districts of the United States, so that at the present time it 

 is the most destructive pest of alfalfa seed. The injury done is 

 known to many farmers as " blighted seed," but this insect is now 

 becoming more generally known among alfalfa-seed growers as the 

 alfalfa-seed chalcis-fly. 



HISTORY AND SYNONYMY. 



This species was described by Dr. L. O. Howard^ as Eurytoma 

 fvmebris. It was for some years supposed to be a parasite of the 

 clover-flower miclge, Dasyneura JagumninicoTa Lintner. The original 

 description is as follows: 



Male. — Length of body 1.7""", expanse of wings 2.5"*". Head slightly 

 wider than thorax; antennae nearly as long as thorax; flagellum of antennae 

 6-jointed (counting the club as 1 joint) ; joints very strongly incised from 

 above, subequal in length except club and first joint ; each joint, except club, 

 with two whorls of yellowish hair, each whorl as long as the joint. Top of 

 head and thorax coarsely punctured, and covered with sparse and very short 

 whitish hair. Subcostal vein yellowish and strong, reaches costa a little before 

 the middle of the wing, and almost immediately gives off stigma ; stigma with 

 a small club and faint indication of a branch. Peduncle very strong and not 

 long; abdomen very small, less than half the length of the thorax. General 

 color black, eyes dark brown, knees, anterior tibige, all tarsi light brown. 



Female. — Length of body 1.9"", -expanse of wings 2.7""". Antennae shorter 

 than in $ and joints much more closely united ; no hairs ; flagellum 7-jointed, 

 the club larger in proportion than in the S . Abdomen longer than thorax, not 

 pedunculated ; ovipositor slightly extruded, light brown in color. 



In 1894 Dr. W. H. Ashmead (2) referred this species to the genus 

 Bruchophagus, sujpposing it to be a parasite of the seed weevils 

 (Bruchidae). 



Dr. A. D. Hopkins reared specimens from heads of crimson clover 

 in 1896, at first supposing them to be parasites of the clover-seed 

 midge, since they had been referred to as such in early literature. 

 But upon careful examination of the infested seeds he found that 

 B. fwnebris was feeding on the seeds. Dr. Hopkins (3) wrote as fol- 

 lows: 



Upon close examination to find their host insect, I was thoroughly surprised 

 to find that it was not a parasite of an insect, but that it bred in the seed, and 

 that scarcely a seed could be found in the bag that had not been a host of one 

 of the interesting little creatures. 



Dr. Hopkins (4) again mentions this insect: 



Additional evidence obtained from a study of all stages of this insect, to- 

 gether with some observations on its habits, seems to leave no doubt that this 

 interesting little Chalcidid is a destructive enemy of the seed of crimson and 

 common red clover. I also determined that it passes the winter in the seed left 

 in the open field, evidently in the larval stage. 



^ Figures in parentheses refer to " Litemture cited," p. 20. 



