Seasonal phenology and pheromone trap catches South American tomato leaf miner of Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in open field tomato under sub-tropical climatic conditions in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

In last 25 years, at least 10 species of insect and mite pests have invaded India. These includes, the American serpentine leafminer, Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) in 1990-91, the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) in 1990, south American tomato moth, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) in 2014 and the western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) in 2015. Field experiment was conducted to determine the influence of weather parameters on trap catches and incidence of T. absoluta during rabi, 2016-17 in farmers’ field at Kalikiri in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. Maximum temperature, minimum temperature and morning relative humidity showed non-significant positive association, while evening relative humidity (r = -0.618) and rainfall (r = -0.467) showed significant negative association with moth catches of T. absoluta. All weather factors displayed non-significant association with leaf infestation. Maximum (r = 0.840) and minimum (r = 0.750) temperature showed significant positive relation with fruit infestation and evening relative humidity (r = -0.537) have significant negative association. The weather parameters, together accounted for 72.80 per cent (R2 = 0.728) of the total variation in trap catches. Pheromone trap catches showed significant positive association with leaf infestation of T. absoluta in tomato.