Biology and external morphology of invasive tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae)

The tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick), native to South America, has gained entry to India in the recent past. Being an exotic pest, generating information on biology under local conditions is essent ial. The incubation, larval and pupal periods were 3.90±0.91, 11.80±1.25 and 9.15±1.70 days, respectively. There were four larval instars based on head capsule collected. Characters useful to distinguish sex in different stages like larvae, pupa and adults were identified. Larvae were sexed based on the presence of pink coloured gonads in males, pupae based on the distance of genital aperture from the anterior segment of last segment and adults based on the abdominal size and genitalia. Description of male and female genitalia has been given. The study is helpful in designing future integrated management of this recently invaded pest in India.