Tomato is one of the major vegetable crops grown throughout the world. The ripe fruit is consumed as fresh vegetable and used for the preparation of various processed products. In India it is grown over an area of 599 thousand ha with a production of 11.15 million metric tonnes and productivity of 18.6 mt/ha (NHB, 2009), while in Meghalaya, tomato is cultivated in 1.71 thousand hectare areas with a production of 22.77 thousand metric tons. Tomato fruit borer is one of the limiting factors for the successful cultivation of this crop.
Tomato fruit borer (Helicoverpa armigera) is prevalent worldwide. The ecology of this species is responsible for it being a predominantly late summer pest. Research work on the biology as well as the management of Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) has been carried out by many of the researchers throughout the world. However little work has been done in Meghalaya, therefore studies on the eco-biology and management of tomato fruit borer pest were undertaken at the Division of Entomology, ICAR Research complex for NEH Region, Umiam. Experiments were carried out both in the field as well as in the laboratory conditions during 2010-2011.
The incubation period of H. armigera was 3-5 days. The larvae of tomato fruit borer passed through six larval instars and completed larval period in 19.47 ± 0.15 days on artificial diet and 21.59±0.30 on natural diet. The pupal period was 10.42±0.65 days for artificial diet and lO.67±0.84 for natural diet. The duration of total life span for male was 46.69±3.lldays and for female it was 55.96±3.44 days on artificial diet and for natural diet life span for male was 49.58±2.93days and for female it was 51.71±4.40 days.
All the treatment evaluated against tomato fruit borer under field conditions differed significantly from control. Out of the ten treatments, endosulfan 35 EC @ 2ml/l recorded the lowest fruit borer infestation 2.92 at 30 days after application with the highest production of tomato (9.25 tonnes/ha). The treatment endosulfan 35EC @2ml/ha recorded 100% larval mortality at 96 hours after treatment under laboratory conditions, which was followed by annonin, karanjin and tobacco extract.