•Tomato Lycopersicon esculentum, is an important vegetable crop grown all over the world.

•India occupies 2nd tomato production in the world.

•In India production of tomato is high in West Bengal.

•Yield of this crop is severely affected by numerous factors.

• Among them Fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera and tobacco caterpillars, Spodoptera litura

Identification, Symptoms and nature of damage: Fruit borer and Spodoptera

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•Eggs•Laid singly on host plant.•Spherical in shape with a flattened base, giving dome shaped appearance, surface is sculptured in the form of longitudinal ribs. •Yellowish-white, glistening and change to dark brown, before hatching.•A female lays about 500-3000 eggs.•The egg period is 7 days

Larva•Newly hatched caterpillar is sluggish and whitish-green in colour.•Full-grown larva is 3.5-4.0 cm in length with pale-green body colour. However, the colour varies according to the food intake. •Dorsal surface bears dark broken stripes. •Head is reddish-brown. •Larva is highly cannibalistic and readily eats one another.•Shows colour variation from greenish to brown.

Identification

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•Pupa – It pupates in soil in earthen cell, leaf, pod and crop debris . Pupa is obtect type. Freshly formed pupa is greenish yellow in colour and darkened prior to emergence of moths.

Adult      •Female light pale brownish yellow stout moth, •Male – Pale greenish moth V shaped speck •Forewing – olive green to pale brown with a dark brown circular spot in the centre •Hindwing-   is pale smoky white with a broad •blackish outer margin•Female moth is bigger than male and presence of tuft of hairs on the tip of the abdomen.

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Symptom of damage•In the early stages, plants seen defoliated. •Boreholes seen on the damaged fruit and affected fruits unfit for consumption.

Nature of damage•Young larva feeds on tender leaves, buds, flowers, and subsequently it bores into the fruit and thrust only a part of its body into the fruit and eat the inner content, the rest remaining outside.•A single larva may destroy 30-40 tomato before maturity.

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Damage caused by larvae

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•Collect and destroy the infected fruits and grown up larvae.

•Planting of 2 rows of African marigold as trap crop with every 14 rows of tomato

•Installation of H armigera pheromone traps @ 4/ha to monitor the initial attack of pest or setup pheromone trap with Helilure at 15/ha for mass trapping

•Six releases of T. chilonis @ 50,000/ha per week coinciding with flowering time or innundative release of Trichogramma brassiliensis @ 2, 50,000 parasitized eggs/ha at 10 days interval at the beginning of flowering and fruiting

•Release Chrysoperla carnea at weekly interval at 50,000 eggs or grubs / ha from 30 DAS.

Management

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•Spray of Ha NPV @ 350 LE/ha twice after flowering can manage the fruit borer.

•Spray endosulfan 35 EC 2 ml/lit or Bacillus thuringiensis 2 g/lit

•Use of synthetic pyrethroids and endosulfan alternatively with NSKE (4%) is effective against fruit borer.

•Marigold was also identified as suitable intercrop/border crop for fruit borer management apart from harboring activity of major parasitoid of the fruit borer parasitoids Microplitis sp, Cotesia sp., Campoletis chlorideae and a polyembryonic parasitoid, Copidosoma sp.

•Do not spray insecticides after fruit maturity.

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•Adult moth is stout with wavy white markings on the brown forewings and white hind wings with a brown patch along its margin.

• Eggs are laid in groups usually on ventral side of the tender leaves and covered with brown hair.

•A single females lays on an average 400 eggs (maximum 2000) in 3 to 4 clusters, each of 80-150 eggs.

•The egg period is 4-5 days. Larva is stout, cylindrical, pale brownish with dark markings.

•The body may have row of dark spots or transverse and longitudinal grey and yellow bands. When fully grown, measures about 35-40 mm in length.

•The larval period is 14-21 days. It pupates in earthern cells in soil for 15 days.•Life cycle is completed 30-40 days.

Identification Spodoptera litura

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Adult stage

Larval stage Egg mass

Pupal stage

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•Freshly hatched caterpillars feed gregariously, scrapping the leaves from ventral surface

•Greenish caterpillars feed on the leaves voraciously and present an appearance to the field as if grazed by cattle.

•Since this pest is nocturnal in habit it hides under the plants, cracks and crevices of soil and debris during the day time.

•Feacal pellets are seen on the leaves and on the ground which is the indicator of the pest incidence.

•ETL: 8 egg masses/100 meter

Symptoms of damage

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Larval feeding Scrabbing

Foliar damage Flower damage

Symptoms

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1. Grow castor as a border (or) intercrop in groundnut fields to serve as indicator (or) trap crop.2. Monitor the emergence of adult moths by setting up of light traps.3. Set up pheromone trap (Spherodin SL) to monitor, attract and kill the male moths @ 12 nos./ha and change the septa once in 3 weeks.4. Collect egg masses and destroy.5. Collect the gregarious larvae and destroy them as soon as the early symptoms of lace-like leaves appear on castor, cowpea and groundnut.6. Avoid migration of larvae by digging a trench 30 cm deep and 25 cm wide with perpendicular sides around the infested fields.

Management

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7. Prepare a bait with following to cover/ha. Rice bran 12.5 kg, molasses or brown sugar 2.5 kg, carbaryl 50 WP 1.25 kg (mix the ingredients to obtain a homogenous mixture sprinkle water gradually and bring the bait to a dough consistency.Distribute the above bait on the soil, around the field and inside in the evening hours immediately after preparation).

8. Spray NPV @ 250 LE/ha with crude sugar 2.5 kg/ha is as effective as that ofchlorpyriphos at 200 g a.i./ha at 7 days interval.

9. Apply any one of the following insecticides per ha to control early instar larvae(1st to 3rd instar). Emamectin benzoate 5 SG @ 11g a.i /ha or Spinosad 45 SC @

75g

10. Spray any one of the following per ha to control the 4th to 6th instar larvae.Indoxacarb 14.5 SC @ 75g ha-1 / Flubendiamide 480SC @ 48-60g a.i ha-1 /

Chlorantraniliprole 20 SC @30-40ga.i ha-1

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Lets sum up•A major constraint in its production is the damage caused by large number of insect – pests, notably the fruit borer Helicoverpa armigera Hubner and Spodoptera litura. The pests cause direct marketable loss up to 60 per cent

•Helicoverpa armigera female lays eggs singly on host plant. Whereas Spodoptera litura lays eggs in groups usually on ventral side of the tender leaves and covered with brown hair.

•Young Helicoverpa armigera larva feeds on tender leaves, buds, flowers, and subsequently it bores into the fruit and thrust only a part of its body into the fruit and eat the inner content, the rest remaining outside. A single larva may destroy 30-40 tomato before maturity

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•Freshly hatched Spodoptera litura scrape the leaves from ventral surface and full grown larvae feed on the leaves voraciously and present an appearance to the field as if grazed by cattle.

•Planting of 2 rows of African marigold as trap crop with every 14 rows of tomato installation of H armigera pheromone traps @ 4/ha to monitor the initial attack of pest or setup pheromone trap with Helilure at 15/ha for mass trapping

•Six releases of T. chilonis @ 50,000/ha per week coinciding with flowering time or innundative release of Trichogramma brassiliensis @ 2, 50,000 parasitized eggs/ha at 10 days interval at the beginning of flowering and fruiting •Release Chrysoperla carnea at weekly interval at 50,000 eggs or grubs / ha from 30 DAS. •Spray of Ha NPV @ 350 LE/ha twice after flowering can manage the fruit borer.

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•Spray endosulfan 35 EC 2 ml/lit or Bacillus thuringiensis 2 g/lit

•Use of synthetic pyrethroids and endosulfan alternatively with NSKE (4%) is effective against fruit borer.

•Marigold was also identified as suitable intercrop/border crop for fruit borer management apart from harboring activity of major parasitoid of the fruit borer parasitoids Microplitis sp, Cotesia sp., Campoletis chlorideae and a polyembryonic parasitoid, Copidosoma sp.

•Grow castor as a border (or) intercrop (or) trap crop and set up pheromone trap to monitor, attract and kill the male moths @ 12 nos./ha for Spodoptera litura.

•For managing Spodoptera litura spray Emamectin benzoate 5 SG @ 11g a.i /ha or Spinosad 45 SC @ 75g to control early instar larvae (1st to 3rd instar).

•To control the 4th to 6th instar larvae of Spodoptera litura Indoxacarb 14.5 SC @ 75g ha-1 / Flubendiamide 480SC @ 48-60g a.i ha-1 / Chlorantraniliprole 20 SC @30-40ga.i ha-1

•Do not spray insecticides after fruit maturity.

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