Proactive classical biological control of Tuta absoluta in California

The invasive South American tomato pinworm Tuta absoluta is a devasting pest of commercial tomato. Over the past decade, T. absoluta has invaded parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, spreading to more than 60% of global tomato production acreage and causing annual economic crop losses of 40-100% in some areas. The efficacy of insecticide-based strategies remains limited, indicating that integrated pest management programs for T. absoluta must be strengthened in invaded regions. Tuta absoluta has not invaded North America, but its high crop damage capacity and potential incursion into the United States represents a major threat to commercial tomato production in California. The addition of T. absoluta would increase pest control costs and major economic losses could result from delays in finding effective long-term control options. In response to this problem, the primary objective of this project is to develop a proactive classical biological control program that uniquely targets T. absoluta and bolsters statewide pest management in the California tomato system. For these reasons, the scope of work for this classical biological control project focuses on identifying, importing and evaluating the host specificity of a key natural enemy of T. absoluta from parts of South America that share a similar climate with California. The parasitoid Dolichogenidae gelechiidivoris will be imported to the USDA quarantine facility in Albany, California, to evaluate its host-specificity on non-target lepidoptera occurring in the southwestern United States.