1 - Phytosanitary Resources

Pest Information
Hosts
Hosts reported for Tuta absoluta are listed in Table 2-3 on page 2-8. The hosts
were reported from their current distributions, and the host species may not be
present in the United States. If pests are introduced into new areas, they may
attack native species that have not previously been identified as host plants.
Therefore, host species should be surveyed (where applicable) and surveys
should be broadened to native species within the host genera.
South America
In South America, the preferred host of Tuta absoluta is tomato; the pest lays
eggs in all aboveground portions of the plant (leaves, shoots, flowers)
including on the fruit (Vargas, 1970). The tomato leafminer is able to complete
its development (from egg to adult stage) on Solanum tuberosum, S.
melongena, S. gracilius, S. bonariense and S. sisymbriifolium, but
development was interrupted (at larval instars I and II) on Nicotiana tabacum
and Solanum pseudo-capsicum (Galarza, 1984).
A more recent study (Cardozo et al., 1994) reported that Tuta absoluta is able
to complete development on Nicotiana tabacum, and can use Solanum
elaeagnifolium as an alternate host plant.
Fernandez and Montagne (1990b) conducted host preference studies in a
laboratory in Venezuela. They found that the tomato cultivar “Rome Gigante”
was the preferred oviposition host and the best host for larval development,
when compared to tomato variety Cerasiforme, eggplant, tobacco, Solanum
hirtum, Physalis angulata, S. americanum, and potato.
Among its alternate hosts are the weeds Lycium chilense (Coralillo), Solanum
nigrum, Datura stramonium (Estay, 2000), Datura ferox, and Nicotiana glauca
L. (tree tobacco) (EPPO, 2005).
Europe
In Europe and other parts of its expanded geographical range, Tuta absoluta
prefers tomato. It can attack other solanaceous crops such as eggplant
(MPAAF, 2009; Viggiani et al., 2009), potato (FREDON-Corse, 2009b;
Maiche, 2009), and pepper (MPAAF, 2009), sweet cucumber (pepino) (FERA,
2009b) and Cape gooseberry (Garzia, 2009b). It was reported infesting
common bean in Italy (EPPO, 2009i; MPAAF, 2009).
6/2011 Tomato Leafminer 2-7
Emergency and Domestic Programs