Distribution of Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in The Eastern Mediterranean and Southeastern Anatolia Regions

The Tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), a new pest for our country, has been identified for the first time in tomato greenhouse of the Aydincik district of Mersin province in March 2010 in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and since then has shown a rapid spread. For this aim, distribution and contamination areas of the pest were determined with survey of open field and greenhouse tomatoes grown areas of the Adana, Mersin, Osmaniye, Kahramanmaras provinces of the Eastern Mediterranean Region and Hatay, Gaziantep and Kilis provinces of Southeastern Anatolia Region in 2011 and 2012. To determine infestation rate, 20 plants were sampled in at least one decar area. In the study, survey was made in 460.9 and 1303 decar areas in the years of 2011 and 2012, respectively and 318.9 and 608.25 decar areas were found infected with T. absoluta. The most infestation rates were determined in provinces of the Hatay (100%), Osmaniye (100%), Adana (95.41%), Mersin (76.43%), Gaziantep (72.55%), Kahramanmaras (30.67%) and Kilis (1.27%), respectively in 2011; Mersin (53.35%), Hatay (52.94%), Adana (51.03%), Gaziantep (38.81%), Kilis (31.82%), Kahramanmaras (15.94%) and Osmaniye (12.50%), respectively in 2012. When examined the infestation rates of the provinces surveyed, general infestation rate were found to be 69.19 % and 46.66 % in the years of 2011 and 2012, respectively. Survey made in the provinces, it was determined that the pest mostly preferred leaf and stem of tomato plant, fruit infestation were found to be very low.