2 BULLETIN" 812, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
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 1 as Eurytoma 
funehris. It was for some years supposed to be a parasite of the 
clover-flower midge, Dasyneura laguminicola Lintner. The original 
description is as follows: 
Male. — Length of body 1.7 mm , expanse of wings 2.5 mm . Head slightly 
wider than thorax; antennae nearly as long as thorax; flagellum of antenna 
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 tibise, all tarsi light brown. 
Female. — Length of body 1.9 mm , expanse of wings 2.7 mm . Antennae shorter 
than in $ and joints much more closely united ; no hairs ; flagellum 7-jointed, 
the club larger in proportion than in the $ . Abdomen longer than thorax, not 
pedunculated ; ovipositor slightly extruded, light brown in color. 
In 1894 Dr. TV. H. Ashmead (2) referred this species to the genus 
Bruchophagus, supposing 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. funehris 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 " Literature cited," p. 20. 
