First report and distribution of the South American tomato pinworm, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in Togo

Abstract

The South American tomato pinworm, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) first invaded Africa in 2008. Since then, the pest has been causing considerable losses to tomatoes across the continent, thereby affecting food security and livelihood of millions of growers and consumers. In this paper, the agroecological-based occurrence of the alien invasive species was reported for the first time in Togo. Fifteen sites were surveyed countywide in the five regions of the country from November 2018 to February 2019. Male moths were trapped using pheromone-based delta traps, and the larvae were collected through sampling of infested tomato leaves and fruits. The field-collected and laboratory-emerged specimens were used for the morphological features and molecular analysis and sequence deposit into GenBank under the accession number MN759250. The pest was present in all regions and sites surveyed across different agro-ecological zones, with significant disparities between agroecologies in relation to population densities. The daily as well as the cumulative catches of T. absoluta male moths was higher in the Coastal Savannah zone than in other agro-ecological zones surveyed, with a daily mean value of 10.78 ± 0.99 individuals per trap. This study is the first report confirming the geo-occurrence of T. absoluta in Togo and represents a baseline for further studies.

Predicting the impact of climate change on the potential distribution of the invasive tomato pinworm Phthorimaea absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae)

“…Although our model showed high climate suitability for P. absoluta , in the Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, as well as some Asian countries, the pest is yet to be officially reported in these countries 32 . Nonetheless, P. absoluta could spread into suitable uninvaded areas as it was recently reported in Togo 6 , where the model predicted high climate suitability. Contrary to the finding by Tonnang et al 27 who predicted a high risk of the establishment of the pest across the USA and some parts of Canada under the current situation, our model projected marginal suitability for P. absoluta establishment in these countries except of some parts in Southern USA.…”

“…Since its first report in Spain in 2006, P. absoluta has rapidly spread and become established in many countries across the Afro-Eurasian Supercontinent, causing devastating yield losses, especially for solanaceous vegetables 4,5 . Over seventeen years after its first detection, P. absoluta continues to expand its geographical range with the latest invasion reported in Togo 6 in West Africa and China in Asia 7 , the largest global producer of tomatoes. The success of invasion and the subsequent establishment of P. absoluta is attributed to its innate dispersal ability, high reproductive rate, short life cycle 5 , wide thermal tolerance, and high phenotypic plasticity [8][9][10] .…”

Direct and Indirect Infection Effects of Four Potent Fungal Isolates on the Survival and Performance of Fall Armyworm Larval Parasitoid Cotesia icipe

“…Among them, C. icipe has been identified as a major FAW larval parasitoid causing a more than 60% parasitism rate [11]. Cotesia icipe is a solitary larval endoparasitoid and it was observed to parasitize Spodoptera littoralis and Spodoptera exigua larvae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) under laboratory conditions at icipe in Kenya [12]. Therefore, for effective deployment of the potent fungal-based biopesticides in the same existing parasitoids environment, there is an urgent need to evaluate the interactions between these effective biopesticides and native parasitoids to boost the control of FAW under an integrated pest management (IPM) umbrella in Africa.…”

A Fuzzy-Based Model to Predict the Spatio-Temporal Performance of the Dolichogenidea gelechiidivoris Natural Enemy against Tuta absoluta under Climate Change

“…Significant crop loss caused by T. absoluta can be attributed to several factors that include the pest’s high dispersal capacity [ 7 ], wide thermal tolerance [ 8 ], high reproduction rate [ 8 ], lack of efficient co-evolved natural enemy to suppress its exploding population [ 9 ], and ability to adapt to the new ecosystems [ 10 , 11 ]. Due to enormous yield losses attributable to T .…”