GERAUD-POUEY, Francis; GARCES, Alberto; CONTRERAS, Nancy    GERAUD-CHIRINO, Juan E.. Prodiplosis longifila (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) evolution as pest and a method to assess its populations in tomato. []. , 48, 1, e7807.   18--2022. ISSN 0120-0488.  https://doi.org/10.25100/socolen.v48i1.7807.

Since mid 1980´s Prodiplosis longifila became the main entomological problem of tomato crops in Ecuador. The lack of bioecological knowledge to guide its rational management has resulted in excessive use of insecticides. Being both the insect and tomato of neotropical origin, the former´s recent evolution as phytosanitary problem raises challenging questions that deserves revising the case history. Population studies including biotic regulatory factors are fundamental to answer them. A methodological approach consists of estimating the percentage of infested plants complemented with the number of insects in periodical samples along the crop phenology. The usual way of carrying field samples to the laboratory wrapped in paper towel inside plastic bags resulted inefficient since many larvae were trapped in the humidity inside the bags or spun their cocoons on the paper towel, making their retrieval for rearing and obtaining adults and parasitoids, time consuming. Thus, taking advantage of the insectʼs habit to pupate in the soil, a sample container with sieved soil in the bottom was designed so larvae that completed development drop to the soil to spin their cocoons, which are easily recovered by sieving. The time economy (5x < time), the number of individuals obtained from the samples, as well as adults reared from them (5.0-7.7x > number), complemented with correlation coefficients of obtained vs. adults and parasitoids, reared from the obtained (1.2-1.9x >) for containers with soil compared with plastic bags, shows the advantages of this new sampling method.

: Tomato bud midge; infestations; populations; sampling.

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