A glasshouse screening method to assess resistance in onions to damage by onion fly (Delia antiqua) larvae

Factors influencing the resistance of onion (Allium cepa) cultivars to onion fly (Delia antiqua) damage were investigated. These included different environments, methods of plant raising and egg inoculation, and plant size. A glasshouse compartment maintained at 14 to 37 °C was as satisfactory for assessing the resistance as a controlled environment. The basic test unit comprised 10 onion seedlings raised in a 400 × 50 × 50 mm deep plastic trough and inoculated with 50 onion fly eggs from a laboratory culture. Resistance was assessed by counting wilted plants every two or three days for 21 days after egg inoculation. The reciprocal of number of days for each plant to wilt (wilting rate) was an appropriate variate for statistical analysis, adjusted for the length of the longest leaf at the time of inoculation. The method enables cultivars or breeding lines of onion species to be reliably screened for resistance to larvae of this pest in a glasshouse so that only the most promising need be tested in the field.