The tomato leafminer Tuta absoluta is native to South America where its preferred host crop is the tomato. Tuta absoluta was detected in Europe for the first time in Spain in 2006. Since then, it has rapidly invaded other European countries and spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, including North Africa and the Middle East [1]. The pest found a perfect environment in the Mediterranean reg...

Variation in resource inputs to plants may trigger bottom-up effects on herbivorous insects. We examined the effects of water input: optimal water vs. limited water; water salinity: with vs. without addition of 100 mM NaCl; and their interactions on tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum), and consequently, the bottom-up effects on the tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meytick) (Lepidoptera: Gelec...

Macrolophus pygmaeus Rambur (Hemiptera: Miridae) is a generalist predatory mirid widely used in augmentative biological control of various insect pests in greenhouse tomato production in Europe, including the invasive tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae). However, its biocontrol efficacy often relies on the presence of alternative prey. The present study aimed at...

The second author's name is spelled incorrectly. The correct name is: Samira A. Mohamed. The affiliation for the second, third, and fourth author are incorrect. Samira A. Mohamed, Fathiya Khamis, and Sunday Ekesi are not affiliated with #2 but with #1 International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Nairobi, Kenya. Copyright: © 2015 Tonnang et al. This is an open access article di...

Tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta (Meyrick, 1917) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), a devastating pest of tomato originating from South America has been recorded in Serbia on three localities: in tomato main greenhouse and open field production area located in the vicinity of town Leskovac (South Serbia), in surroundings of the village Donji Vrtogoš (near town Vranje, South Serbia) and in a greenhouses...

Biweekly field visits starting from January to the end of April 2011 were conducted to tomato fields (open and plastic houses) heavily infested with the tomato borer Tuta absoluta, in order to survey natural enemies associated with this pest. Three hemipterans were found: Orius albidipennis, Orius sp. (Anthocoridae) and Nesidiocoris tenuis (Miridae). In addition, the parasitic wasp Bracon (Habr...

The tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), is a devastating pest that develops principally on solanaceous plants throughout South and Central America and Europe. In this study, we tested the influence of three levels of T. absoluta infestations on the attraction and oviposition preference of adult T. absoluta. Three infestation levels (i.e., non-infested plants, plants infe...

The Lepidopteran pest of tomato, Tuta absoluta, is native to South America and is invasive in the Mediterranean basin. The species' routes of invasion were investigated. The genetic variability of samples collected in South America, Europe, Africa and Middle East was analyzed using microsatellite markers to infer precisely the source of the invasive populations and to test the hypothesis of a s...

Can specialist natural enemies persist in ecosystems when competing with omnivorous natural enemies for their shared prey? The consequences of omnivory have been studied theoretically, but empirical studies are still lacking. Omnivory is nevertheless common in nature and omnivorous predators coexist with specialists in many ecosystems, even when they are intraguild predators. This type of assoc...

We report the first record of Neochrysocharis formosa (Westwood) parasitizing larvae of the tomato moth, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick), in tomato crops in Northern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Tomato moth larvae were sampled during four consecutive growing cycles, between 2003 and 2005, in 10 sites. Neochrysocharis formosa was present only in organic outdoor and protected crops, and predominantl...