| Comparison of growth parameters of tomato leaf miner reared on natural host vs. artificial diet |
| Paper ID : 1283-3IICE (R1) |
| Authors: |
|
solmaz khani1, zahra Nozad-Bonab2, Mir Jalil Hejazi *3 1Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran. 2Department of Plant Protection, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran 3University of Tabriz |
| Abstract: |
| Tomato is a very valuable vegetable crop all over the world; and Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) is one of the key pests of this crop in many tomato growing regions. Studying different aspects of T. absoluta biology and control will be helpful in proper management of this pest. One of the limiting factors in rearing insects in laboratories is provision of their food. Since in most cases, growing host plants is laborious and time-consuming, rearing insects on artificial diet can be very helpful. A colony of T. absoluta was established at 26 ± 2 °C, 60 ± 10% RH and16: 8 (L:D) h photoperiod on Urbana tomato cultivar in the research greenhouse of Department of Plant Protection, University of Tabriz. Artificial diet was prepared using pinto beans, wheat germ, yeast, sorbic acid, formaldehyde, sunflower oil, powdered tomato leaves, agar, para hydroxy benzoate, water, tetracycline, ascorbic acid and vitamin B complex. Each larva was reared in plastic container (ca.3 cm in diameter and 5 cm in height) containing either a small cube of artificial diet (ca. 0.125 cm3) or a tomato leaf with its petiole wrapped in moist cotton. Survivorship of all stages as well as fecundity of female adults were recorded on daily basis. The highest mortality recorded for 1st instar larvae of the insects reared on artificial diet (IAD) and the insects reared on tomato leaves (ITL) was 58 and 5 %, respectively. The average pupal weight for IAD and ITL was 2.64 and 2.36 mg, respectively. The difference in pupal weight was significant (P < 0.05). The pupal period for IAD and ITL was 10.5 and 9.7 days, respectively. Life cycle (egg to egg) for ITLwas 24.44 days while it was 30.2 days for IAD. Fecundity for IAD and ITL were 117.2 and 123.5 eggs per female, respectively. All of the studied parameters for IAD and ITL were very close, except for the pupal weight and larval development time. The larval development time was significantly longer in IAD (P < 0.05). Based on the results, if the artificial diet used in this study could be modified such that the mortality of the 1st instar larvae is reduced to an acceptable level ( < 40%), rearing T. absoluta on artificial diet would be an easy and suitable way of rearing this insect for doing different studies concerning its management and control. |
| Keywords: |
| fecundity, survivorship, tomato, Tuta absoluta, artificial diet |
| Status : Paper Accepted (Poster Presentation) |
