. Circular. Insects. Fig. fi. -The c] o ver-seed eha'cis: Egg, highly mag- nified. (Orig- inal.) LIFE HISTORY. It is probable that the insect passes the winter in the seed within out- standing clover heads in the field, and it may do so either as larva or pupa. Doctor Hopkins and Mr. E. S. G. Titus, both of whom have witnessec oviposition, state that the female crawls down among the florets and pushes her egg into the seed, which at this time is in a semifluid state. As this is practically the condition of the seed until it becomes full sized and begins to harden it is not yet clear just how t
. Circular. Insects. Fig. fi. -The c] o ver-seed eha'cis: Egg, highly mag- nified. (Orig- inal.) LIFE HISTORY. It is probable that the insect passes the winter in the seed within out- standing clover heads in the field, and it may do so either as larva or pupa. Doctor Hopkins and Mr. E. S. G. Titus, both of whom have witnessec oviposition, state that the female crawls down among the florets and pushes her egg into the seed, which at this time is in a semifluid state. As this is practically the condition of the seed until it becomes full sized and begins to harden it is not yet clear just how the larva feeds during this time but in all cases the larva develops within the seed, and from it the adult emerges. Mr. Titus found that a larva sometimes abandons one seed and, eating its way through the inclosing floret into an adjoining one, enters another seed. In one instance observed, a single larva appeared to have in this way reached and partly devoured three seeds This would account for the shrunken or partly developed seeds, frequently- charged up to the midge. Developing within the seed, it seems probable that the adults issue therefrom at the usual time when the seed of the second bloom has begun to form, and that the same mode of pro- cedure is followed as before, except that the adults from these seeds do not appear until late in the following spring or early in the summer. While future investigations may necessitate mod- ifications of this supposed life cycle, it will prob- ably be found, in the main, correct, and, if so, it would seem that the less number of seeds pro- duced by the first bloom might act as a restraint upon the excessive abundance of the insect in the second. However, as cases are known in which from 50 to 85 pel ^jy. cent of the seeds of a single head were infested, it wil readily be seen how serious a pest it can become in the clover field with no other restraint put upon its increase Its presence is most assuredly never beneficial. FOOD HABITS
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