Bioefficacy of newer insecticide molecules against tomato fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner)

Abstract

Tomato Fruit Borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous pest which feeds on more than 150 crops and attacking the major crops like cotton, tomato, okra, pigeon pea, gram etc. (Sharma et al., 2011; Sarate et al., 2012; Vinutha et al., 2013). This pest is widely distributed in tropics, subtropics and warmer temperate regions of the world as well as in India. Out of several insect pests attacking tomato crop H. armigera has a major threat and constraints in the higher production of tomato yield and crop causing significant yield loss (Talekar et al., 2006; Singh et al., 2011). Young larvae of fruit borer feed on the foliage and late larval instars bore inside the fruits and fruits are contaminated with the excreta. Such fruits are not preferred by consumers