|
Abstract
|
Tomato leaf miner (TLM), Tuta abs oluta (Meyrick) (Le pidoptera: Ge lechiidae) is
one of the most destructive tomato pests wor ldwide. We tested quantity and quality
of tomato fruits after simultane ous use of two biolog ical control age nts, the predatory
mirid bugNesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) and the egg parasitoid Trichogramma brassicae
Bezdenko against TLM. We vari ed the timin g of predator releases (before or after
pest establishment) and the number of parasitoids released (ten or 30 females per
week per m
2
). The high est number of fruits per cage, percentage of und amaged fruits,
total yield weight, and undama ged yield weight were all obtaine d with pred ator-in-first treatments, wit h or without parasitoid releases. Furthe rmore, mea sures of fruit
quality were also high est in predator-in -first treatments, including , highest percent-age of water, greatest proportional fresh weight of carbo hydrates, most lycopene,
most? -carotene, most flavonoids, and highest total chlorophyll. Thus, our findings
support a predator-in- first augme ntation approach for managem ent of TLM.
|