Management of Vegetable Leaf Miner, Liriomyza Spp., (Diptera: Agromyzidae) in Vegetable Crops

Abstract

Vegetables are considered high value crops based on their growing areas and productivity, even if they are affected by a variety of insect pests throughout the whole growing season. Leaf miner is an immature of an insect that lives inside and consumes the leaf tissues of vegetable plants. Adult females of leaf miner puncture the leaf with their ovipositor, forming tube pattern, and feed on the punctured parts. Host plants survey of leaf miner in Multan (Pakistan) area was conducted. Twenty host plants were found in 2017, whereas twenty-four host plants were found infested with Liriomyza spp. (Diptera) in 2022 i.e., watermelon (24% infestation), long melon (75%), pumpkin (71%), round gourd (67%), snake melon (70%), bitter gourd (50%), long gourd (89%), bottle gourd (93%), pointed gourd (80%), snap gourd (86%), ridge gourd (83%), cucumber (98%), mung bean (98%), eggplant (60%), Petunia alba (88%), Zinnia elegies (30%), cotton (10%), okra (5%), berseem (7%), tomato (89%), Pea (52%) and Canola (28%). No infestation of leaf miners was observed on potato, chilies, and sweet potatoes. Color attraction results in 2017 and 2022 showed that there was maximum attraction of tomato leaf miner towards yellow sticky cards as compared to blue sticky cards. Varietal preference of tomato crop showed that Baby red variety was the most preferred by leaf miner (Liriomyza spp.), and comparatively Sehar was the least preferred variety. Field efficacy of four different insecticides against leaf miner were also tested. Insecticidal effects attributed as percent reduction of leaf miner infestation that showed the highest reduction values were observed after 7 DOA for Spinetoram (76.98%), whereas Bifenthrin (57%). Deltaphos (43 %) was the least toxic insecticide against Liriomyza spp. Integrated approaches are recommended to manage vegetable leaf miner like application of yellow sticky traps, discouraging preferred host plants, application of insecticides with novel modes of actions like spintoram and spinosad for effective management. © 2023 by the authors.