Laboratory Rearing of Tomato Leaf Miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) on Artificial Diet

The tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) is a crucial tomato pest distributed from South Americato Europe and introduced in Turkey in 2009. Since then it is one of the most important tomato pest in ourcountry. Studies on laboratory adaptation and rearing on artificial diet are important to develop new controlapproaches for the insect pests. In this study, some biological parameters such as larval viability, larvalduration, pupal recovery and adult emergence of T. absoluta were determined on six different artificial dietsand tomato leaves. The larval viability was the highest on tomato leaves followed by Diet 5, originallydeveloped for Plutella xylostella and Diet 6 or HG diet, formulated here for this study. Larval mortality was highon the first instars for all tested diets. The tomato leaf miner was reared on both Diet 5 and 6 for fourconsecutive generations in the laboratory. Plutella xylostella diet was tested for the first time for tomato leafminer and indicated that it’s suitable for laboratory rearing and maintains.