Thrips tobaci
- noun
- Specialized
:
Thrips tobaci
- The damage caused by Thrips tobaci can greatly reduce the yield of both onions and tobacco.
Examples
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Farmers must monitor their fields regularly to prevent Thrips tobaci infestations in their onion crops.
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Experts recommend using integrated pest management to control Thrips tobaci.
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Farmers are concerned about Thrips tobaci affecting their onion crops.
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The Thrips tobaci infestation has spread rapidly this season.
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Farmers must monitor their onion fields closely to avoid damage from Thrips tobaci.
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The Thrips tobaci pest poses a significant threat to the health of onion plants.
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To protect their crops, gardeners should be aware of how Thrips tobaci can affect onions.
Synonyms
A small insect that eats onion plants and sometimes tobacco, damaging crops
Surface Forms
Morphology
Thrips + tobaci
The genus name 'Thrips' is transparent as a small plant-damaging insect, but 'tobaci' is not a normal English word (likely a Latinized form relating to 'tobacco'). If a learner recognizes the tobacco root they could infer this refers to thrips associated with tobacco, but the scientific binomial is specialist jargon and the exact host association (onion and sometimes tobacco) is not fully predictable. Because part of the meaning is derivable only with morphological/biological knowledge and the epithet is non-standard for a B1 learner, the expression is partially but not fully transparent.
Etymology
Thrips tobaci gets its name from the first part Thrips, a group name for tiny, slender insects, and the second part tobaci, which points to the plant 'tobacco'. So the name literally means 'thrips of tobacco', a simple memory hook for a species that attacks onion crops and sometimes 'tobacco'.
