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THE CLOVER- SEED FLY — A NEW INSECT PEST. 



BY J. A. LINTNER, N. Y. STATE MUSEUM NAT. HIST., ALBANY. 



In the summer of 1877, my attention was called to some " worms " which had been 

 discovered in the heads of red clover ( Trifolium proteose), and were said to be preying 

 upon the seeds. They were found to be minute maggot-like creatures, hidden within 

 the seed-pods and entirely destroying the seeds which they attacked. Numbers of 

 them were subsequently detected in the examination of heads of clover taken from 

 several localities in the vicinity of Albany, and in Warren County, N. Y. I was unable 

 at the time to refer the insect to any described species, or to find any record of a similar 

 depredation on clover seeds in this country or in Europe. 



The following season additional examples of infested clover heads were submitted 

 to me, which had been sent from Mr. George W. Hoffman, Presiden tof the New York 

 State Agricultural Society, from Elmira, N. Y. A number of the larvae were obtained 

 from these heads, and their careful examination enabled me to refer them to the Ceci- 

 domyidae — of a species probably closely related to the well-known wheat-midge, Ceci- 

 domyia destructor. Several of the larvae were preserved in alcohol, and the larger 

 number placed in a pot of damp sand, in which they speedily buried themselves for 

 their transformation. 



At the annual meeting of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, in this city, in January 

 last, in a paper presented to the Society on some injurious insects observed during the 

 past year, I gave an account of this new depredator upon an important crop, and 

 described its larva as follows : 



Cecidomyia leguminicola, n. sp. — Head subacute, subtriangular, slightly rounded 

 laterally on its posterior half, giving that portion a subquadrangular form ; a short 

 cylindrical horn}' ? process at its tip, and two longer antennal processes, cylindrical, 

 tapering apically. Body eriptical, moderately constricted at the joints, flattened on 

 the sides, rather rounded behind, delicately shagreened, laterally at about the middle of 

 each segment, a short fleshy papilliform process, with two short bristles of unequal 

 length near the posterior of the segment ; posterior segment bilobed, each lobe armed 

 with two short fleshy ? processes, of which the outer is the longer ; " breast-bone " of a 

 pale yellowish colour, its projecting end divided into two rather blunt, laterally rounded, 

 points. A dorsal row of processes similar to the lateral ones is suspected, but was not 

 definitely made out. Colour of the living larvae, pinkish, approaching orange ; length, 

 0.08 cf an inch. 



The reading of the paper elicited the information that the insect had committed 

 serious depredation upon clover-seed in Tompkins, Seneca and other counties in Western 

 New York, during the past year. In Seneca County, fields of clover which had been 

 kept for seed, proved to be not worth the cutting. It was also stated that a worm 

 similar to those in the heads had been discovered preying upon the roots, but these are 

 probably the same larvae, which having matured, had left the heads for their pupation in 

 the ground, where the Cecidomyidae larvae frequently remain unaltered for a considerable 

 length of time. 



The extent of the ravages throughout our country of this newly discovered insect, 

 which promises to be of considerable economic importance, will be an interesting subject 

 of inquiry for the ensuing summer; and the interesting question also arises, now that 

 its hidden covert has been detected, will the species also be discovered in Europe, whence 

 the red clover was introduced in this country. 



I have been successful in obtaining examples of the imago of Cecid. leguminicola. 

 Anticipating failure (since realized) in my efforts to rear it from the larvae obtained by 

 me last year, I applied, in May last, to Mr. R. J. Swan, of Geneva, N. Y., who at the 

 annual meeting of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, in January, had spoken of the 

 occurrence in very large numbers of the larvae in a clover field upon his farm, request- 

 ing that some of the surface soil from the field might be collected and forwarded to me. 

 A small bDX of the earth (containing also some of the clover roots) of about six inches 



