73 



was therefore determined to find some method of protecting the blooms 

 this year, so I recommended covering them with mosquito netting' 

 stretched over a temporary frame. This was done, and proved quite 

 successful until all the flowers bad opened and some were beginning to 

 fade, by which time the beetles (which occurred on the netting in great 

 numbers all the time the asters were in bloom) learned that they 

 could get in by eating holes in the netting, and they soon availed 

 themselves of this method of entrance and feasted on the flowers. 

 The holes would probably not have been eaten in the netting had not 

 some of the flowers pressed against it, thus allowing the beetles to feed 

 through the covering. A higher frame covered with netting which 

 had been previously dipped in oil would have proven successful. 



A chaleidid. enemy of clove?- seed. — June 13 of the present year (189G) 

 I observed a great many examples of what I first supposed to be a 

 Eurytoma parasite in and on a paper bag in which some ripened heads 

 of crimson clover had been stored. 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. Specimens of the insect were sent to Mr. 

 William IT. Ashmead for determination, who kindly identified them for 

 me as Bruchophagus (Eurytoma) funebris How. By reference to the 

 literature on the habits of the species I found that it had previously 

 been bred from clover seed and was generally recognized as a parasite 

 of the clover-seed midge (Cecidomyia leguminicola), and that it was 

 believed to be especially beneficial in diminishing the ravages of the 

 midge. 



This information led me to make a careful examination of a large 

 number of infested seeds, but as yet I have failed to find any evidence 

 whatever that it is a parasite of the midge or any other insect, but, on 

 the contrary, quite conclusive evidence was found that it is a parasite 

 of the seed. It would also appear from what I have observed that it is 

 far more destructive to the growing red and crimson clover-seed crop 

 than is the midge. 



Larv;e of the clover-seed midge were observed in some of the clover 

 heads examined, but since the Cecidomyia larvae prevent the develop- 

 ment of the seed, while the chaleidid larva} develop within the seed 

 which attains normal size, the two species can no longer be associated 

 as host and parasite. 



Bumblebees and red clover. — hi a recent study of varieties of timothy 

 and red clover I deemed it necessary to make some further investigations 

 with reference to the pollenization of the clover flower and the relation 

 of insects to the crossing of varieties, and it would appear from the 

 results obtained that the value of bumblebees to the grower of clover 

 seed has been somewhat overestimated, since I have found that honey- 

 bees and other smaller bees may and do serve the same purpose in 

 pollinating or cross-fertilizing the red-clover flower as do the large 

 bumblebees. 



