Early season (pre-flowering) control of tomato spotted wilt virus is important for profitable tomato production in the Southeast. Two species of thrips, Frankliniella fusca (Hinds) and F. occidentalis (Pergrande) are the predominant vectors found on tomatoes during this time. Since these vectors transmit the virus to tomatoes by feeding, we were interested to learn how factors during this time period affect the probing and preference behavior of F. fusca and F. occidentalis. Using direct current electrical penetration graph, DC EPG, we compared the probing behavior of males and females of F. fusca and F. occidentalis on 3, 4, 6, and 8-week-old plants and 1, 3 and 4-week-old leaves. We also used whole plant bioassays to compare plant and leaf age preference for female F. fusca and F. occidentalis.
Species 1: Thysanoptera Thripidae Frankliniella occidentalis (western flower thrips)
Species 2: Thysanoptera Thripidae Frankliniella fusca (tobacco Thrips)
Keywords: tomato
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