422 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



it was early known as a pest in Europe and was imported into 

 this country probably in colonial times. 



These maggots are the offspring of small flies, somewhat 

 resembling small houseflies and very similar to those of the cabbage 

 root-maggot (see page 347).* The wings expand about three- 

 eighths of an inch and the body is half that long. The male is 

 gray with black bristles and hairs, the face is white with black 

 hairs, there are three black lines between the wings, and the abdo- 

 men bears a row of black spots along the middle. The female is a 

 little larger, inclined to dark yellowish, and with a yellowish face. 



Life History. The flies appear in the spring by the time young 

 onions are up and the eggs are deposited in the sheath and in the 

 axils of the leaves, from two to six being placed upon a plant. The 

 eggs are just perceptible to the eye, white, oval, and about one- 

 twenty-fifth of an inch long. The young maggot works its way 

 down from the sheath to the root, upon which it feeds until it is 

 consumed, only the outer skin remaining, and often cuts off the 

 plant completely. Another plant is then attacked and often sev- 

 eral young plants are consumed before the maggot is full grown. 

 Later in the season the maggots bore into the bulbs, a number of 

 maggots usually being found in a single bulb and their presence 

 being indicated by a slimy mass of soil at the entrance of the 

 cavity. If such bulbs are not killed outright, they usually rot in 

 storage. The first presence of the pest is indicated by the wilt- 

 ing of the young plants, and by the central leaves of the older 

 plants yellowing and dying. 



The maggots becom3 full grown about two weeks after hatch- 

 ing and are then about three-eighths of an inch long. They are 

 dull white, with the jaws appearing beneath the skin as a short 

 black stripe at the pointed end of the body. The posterior end of 

 the body is obtuse and is cut off obliquely, the margin of the last 

 segment bearing a number of tubercles by which this species may 

 be distinguished from the cabbage-root maggot. (See Slinger- 

 land, 1. c.). 



* See Slingerland, Bulletin 78, Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta., p. 495, for characters 

 distinguishing these two species. 



