Microbial biopesticides affected age-stage life table of the tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera – Gelechiidae)

Abstract

The tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyric), second instar larvae were exposed for 1 day to LC 50 of Bacillus thuringiensis (Berliner) subsp. kurstaki or Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) on treated tomato foliages. Treated larvae had the longest development period while non-treated larvae had the shortest development period. The highest survivorship (l x ) of adults was obtained by the non-treated larvae while the lowest survivorship was obtained by B. thuringiensis-treated larvae. The lowest age-specific fecundity (m x ) of females was obtained by individuals treated as second instar larvae with B. bassiana. The intrinsic rate of increase (r m ) reached its maximum with non-treated individuals while this value decreased to the minimum values with biopesticide-treated individuals. Therefore, development, survival, and reproduction of treated individuals were lower than those of non-treated individuals. The reproduction period and adult longevity were the shortest considering biopesticide-treated individuals. The highest and lowest net reproductive rates (R 0 ) were recorded for nontreated and treated individuals, respectively. The mean generation time was increased with biopesticide-treated individuals.

Life Table Parameters of the Tomato Leaf Miner Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) on Five Tomato Cultivars in China

“…Host range is constrained by the behavioral and physiological traits of the insect [ 7 ]. Since 2006, many researchers had paid attention to the biological performance and oviposition performance of T. absoluta on different plants (different solanum plants or different tomato cultivars) across the world, such as in South America [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], Europe [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], Asia [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], and Africa [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. The general result was that tomato is the most preferred host plant for T. absoluta oviposition and is suitable for larval development [ 4 ].…”