STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
487 
ELEVENTH REPORT 
OX TUE 
NOXIOUS, BENEFICIAL AND OTHER INSECTS 
OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 
BY ASA FITCII, M. D. 
Onton-fly and worm, Anthomyia Ceparum, Linn. (Diptcra. Muscidie. 
Boring into the bulb of tho onion at all seasons, causing it to wilt and decay; a plump, 
whito, cylindrical maggot, pointed at the anterior end and obliquely cut off at its tip, pass¬ 
ing its pupa state under ground, and produoing an ash gray fly, having a row of black spots 
along tho middle of tho hind body. 
The Onion-fly, Anthomyia Ceparum , is one of the most perni¬ 
cious insects in our gardens, it being the parent of the white 
"grub,” as it is frequently termed, but, as it has no distinct head, 
it is more properly a “ maggot,” which bores into and destroys 
the root of the onion. 
This insect has infested the onion in Europe from time imme¬ 
morial, and has been in this country many years, making its 
appearance from time to time in one neighborhood and another, 
and remaining several years, greatly injuring or totally destroying 
the crop. In many parts of New England and New York it was 
extremely numerous and destructive about the year 1854, and 
again in 1863. 
In June, as soon as the young seedling onions are only an inch 
or two in height, these insects commence their depredations and 
continue them through the whole season, getting their growth and 
coining out in their perfect state one after another, whereby some 
of the flies are liable to be ahvays present in the garden, in readi¬ 
ness to deposit their eggs, and maggots of widely different sizes 
are commonly met with in the same onion. 
The eggs or “fly-blows” are loosely placed upon the onion 
