Seasonal incidence of leaf hopper infesting cherry tomato under protected cultivation

Abstract

Cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) is an economically valuable crop with high nutritional content and global cultivation potential. However, sucking pest infestation significantly constrain crop production, necessitating comprehensive understanding of pest population dynamics. This study investigated the seasonal incidence of major sucking pests infesting cherry tomato under protected cultivation during rabi 2024-25 at Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University, Hyderabad. Weekly monitoring Standard Meteorological Week (SMW) - wise was conducted from November, 2024 to March, 2025 on 50 randomly selected plants to record major sucking pest insect populations and the results revealed distinct seasonal patterns with minimal pest activity during early December (49th SMW), gradually increasing through late December and peaking during February-March, 2025. Whitefly and leafhopper showed peak populations during the 9th SMW with densities of 9.75 and 9.95 individuals per 5 leaves per plant, respectively and then declined later.