Tuta absoluta

Al-Azzazy, M. M., Alhewairini, S. S., Abdel-Baky, N. F., Qureshi, M. Z. & Hajjar, M. J., 2022, Evaluation of the effectiveness of Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans) as a predator of Tuta absoluta (Meyrick), Brazilian Journal of Biology (e 255753) 82, pp. 1-9 : 3

2.3. Tuta absoluta colony and oviposition

The initial colony of T. absoluta used in this research was collected from tomato greenhouse in Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. Adults were reared under laboratory conditions (25°C ± 3 (range: 23 to 28°C), 50 ± 4% R.H. and 12:12 h light: dark.in PERSPEX® cages (120 cm high × 80 cm wide × 90 cm depth) each containing five tomato seedlings for egg laying. Small streaks of 50% honey solution were placed to the top sides of each cage as food source for adults. In addition to the tomato seedlings, the adults provided with tomato terminal buds and leaves with the petiole plugged into a ball of moistened cotton to delay wilting, then placed in a small glass test tube (15 ml) for oviposition. The plants were taken out of cages and eggs and 1 st instar larvae of T. absoluta were collected under a stereoscopic microscope (SD30, Olympus, Japan) using a fine camel hair brush and placed on rearing arena used in mites feeding experiment.