490 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
ONION-FLY. WORK OF THE MAGGOT. 
rootlets, as shown in the figure, whereby 
it is now these central and not the outer 
leaves which first turn yellow and die; 
and all the upper portion of the root soon 
becomes soft and putrid, while the bot¬ 
tom part, continuing to be nourished by 
the fibrous rootlets, remains sound, and 
the worms now crowd into this part to 
feed, whereby it sometimes presents a Fig- 2- Onion bulb perforated, 
wonderful appearance, being thronged with worms wedged 
together side by side in a compact mass, all with their heads 
downwards, eagerly consuming the last remains of food there is 
there, and only the rounded hind ends of their bodies exposed to 
view, these forming an even surface similar to the cobble stones of 
a street pavement, as represented m Fig. 3. 
Multipliers, escallions, and old onions planted for 
growing seed, arc about as liable to be attacked as are 
• '(ji]W' the young seedling onions. And there would seem to 
tom'of an onion be something peculiar in particular onions which 
crowded with tracts the flies to them to deposit multitudes of their 
“'upon them. Thus an escallion, a month after it was set out, 
having wilted and turned yellow, the whole of its root was found 
to be a soft, putrid mass, of a most offensive smell, everywhere 
thronged with these maggots, of all sizes, some of them newly 
hatched and no larger than the eggs from which they came, others 
full grown, and others changed to pupae and lying in the wet dirt in 
contact with the root. I judged there rvere upwards of two hundred 
maggots in this one onion, which was little more than a half inch 
in thickness. And though there was no sustenance now remain¬ 
ing for thoir nourishment, unless they feed upon the putrid as well 
as°the sound substance of the onion, every crevice above ground, 
around the bases of the leaves, was occupied with eggs, to the 
number of about fifty, and many empty shells from which worms 
had recently issued. It was a mystery to me why such a multi¬ 
tude of worms should occur in this particular onion, and why flies 
continued to deposit their eggs upon it when it was already so 
overstocked as to furnish no food for their young. 
