The role of leaf wounding and an epigeal predator on caterpillar damage to tomato plants

Summary The effects of leaf wounding and the presence of a New Zealand carabid predator, Megadromus antarcticus , on the mortality of, and leaf damage caused by, Spodoptera litura on tomatoes were examined in glass houses. The presence of the non‐climbing carabid increased S. litura mortality with a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Applied Biology
Main Authors: HODGE, SIMON, WRATTEN, STEVE, SMITH, JASON, THOMAS, MATHEW, FRAMPTON, CHRIS
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 1999
Subjects:
Agronomy and Crop Science
New Zealand
Antarc*
antarcticus
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7348.1999.tb05249.x
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1744-7348.1999.tb05249.x
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1744-7348.1999.tb05249.x
Description
Summary:Summary The effects of leaf wounding and the presence of a New Zealand carabid predator, Megadromus antarcticus , on the mortality of, and leaf damage caused by, Spodoptera litura on tomatoes were examined in glass houses. The presence of the non‐climbing carabid increased S. litura mortality with a subsequent decrease in leaf damage. Leaf wounding produced a possible decrease in herbivory but did not affect S. litura mortality. Neither leaf wounding or the presence of carabids affected the vertical distribution of leaf damage on the tomato plants. The role of M. antarcticus as a biocontrol agent for tomato pests in New Zealand is briefly discussed.

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