CHAPTER XVI 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO MISCELLANEOUS 

 VEGETABLE CROPS 



THE ONION AND OTHER BULB CROPS 



Bulb crops arc so similar that what will attack one is apt to 

 feed on the others. Six crop plants (genus Allium) are in- 

 cluded in this grou]) : the common onion, Welsh onion, shallot, 

 cive, leek and garlic. Of these only the first is grown to any 

 extent in North America. "The onion," some one has remarked, 

 "'is one of those strenuous vegetables about which one can- 

 not be indifferent. One either yearns for it with a passionate 

 longing or else utterly repudiates it." The same is true as re- 

 gards insects, since few species are overfond of it. The leading 

 species arc the onion maggot and onion thrips. A few insects 

 of omnivorous tendencies, however, not infrequently do much 

 injury to this ])lant. Of such are some forms of cutworms, and 

 especially the dark-sided cutworm, wireworm, and the imbri- 

 cated snout-beetle. The pungent odor of the onion and its 

 kind renders it unpalatable to many insects, but some resort to 

 these plants in the absence of other vegetation. 



Insect injury to onion and related plants is peculiarly local 

 or intermittent, and in spite of the injurious species which 

 will be treated, and the immense amount of damage that they 

 have done, it is no uncommon sight, but in fact the rule, to 

 see fields grown to these crops year after year for long periods 

 without their sustaining any material harm. Such is the case 

 about the District of Columbia, where no insects what- 



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