Co-occurrence and abundance of two leafminer species, Phthorimaea absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) and Liriomyza trifolii (Diptera: Agromyzidae) on tomato

Tomato leafminer, Phthorimaea absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) and the serpentine leafminer, Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) (Diptera: Agromyzidae) are important pests of tomato crop with similar feeding guild. This co-occurrence study revealed significant differences in abundance between the two leafminer species over 12 weeks. In comparison, the average weekly abundance of P. absoluta ranged from 1 to 53, while L. trifolii showed a higher average occurrence, ranging from 6 to 166. This variation underscores the co-occurrence and dominance of one species over other species of similar feeding guild.