Evaluation of twelve tomato cultivars for resistance to tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Lep.: Gelechiidae)

Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the most important and devastating pest of tomato crops throughout South and Central America، Europe and recently Iran that caused severe damages to tomato crops in greenhouses and fields. Since antixenosis and antibiosis are the two important resistance mechanisms in Lycopersicon hirsutum to tomato leafminer، these mechanisms were evaluated on 12 tomato cultivars of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. (Petomech، Mobil، superstain-B، kingstone، Redstone، Early urbana-Y، Early urbana، Riogrande، Cal-J-N3، Primo early، Falat-111 and Dehghan) in greenhouse with daily temperature fluctuations of 18–27 °C during November and December 2013. The first experiment was carried out to appraise the oviposistion preference of tomato leafminer on different parts of those 12 cultivars. Survival and duration of eggs، larvae and pupae، weight of pupae، sex ratio of progeny، visual injury rating and number of mines of tomato leafminer on 12 tomato cultivars were examined in the second experiment. The higher and lower ovposition were observed on Falat-111 (30 eggs) and Kingstone (5. 33 eggs)، respectively، on the fourth day of the experiment. Incubation period، larval and pupal stadia، pupal weight، visual injury rating and number of mines were significantly affected by tomato cultivars. Based on all examined characteristics، tomato cultivars were clustered into three main groups. We concluded that three cultivars Mobil، Riogrande and Cal-J-N3 appeared to be relatively more resistant to the damage inflicted.