Abstract:
Executive Summary
The South American tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) constitutes one of the major
pests of tomato crop in Bangladesh. The objective of this work was to investigate on the
natural enemies of tomato leaf miner. The study was carried out at Sher-e-Bangla
Agricultural University during October 2021 to March 2022. As many as four predators of
tomato leaf miner viz, minute pirate bug, lady bird beetle, mirid bug and spider were
collected and identified. Both nymph and adult stage of minute pirate bug predated 22.5 and
19.5 tomato leaf miners respectively. Both the grubs and adults of lady bird beetle predated
on all the stage of tomato leaf miner. Grub was found as voracious feeder showing a
predation efficiency of 37.70 per hour while in case of adult the rate was 5.8 per hour. The
nymph and adult of mirid bug consumed an average of 18.4 and 23.10 tomato leaf miner per
hour. An unidentified species of spider was found to consume tomato leaf miner. In
conclusion, this research successfully identified and evaluated four natural predators,
including the minute pirate bug, lady bird beetle, mirid bug and an unidentified species of
spider, as effective biocontrol agents against the tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta.
