Abstract
Onions, Allium cepa L., are an important crop in New York State and onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lindeman, have become its most important insect pest. Thrips feeding alone can cause substantial yield losses but can be even more problematic when it occurs with Iris yellow spot virus (IYSV), which is transmitted by onion thrips. My research project is aimed to find onion resistance to onion thrips, and to study the role of onion thrips as a vector of IYSV. The initial objectives of this research are: to screen onion varieties for resistance to onion thrips and IYSV, to measure the impact of the thrips/IYSV interaction on plant growth, to identify the categories of resistance to onion thrips, and to study different aspects of thrips feeding behavior and IYSV transmission using video recording.
