Preference and plant damage caused by Nesidiocoris tenuis on twenty-one commercial tomato cultivars

The predatory bug Nesidiocoris tenuis (Hemiptera: Miridae) is the cornerstone of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in greenhouse tomatoes in southern Europe. N. tenuis can also feed on the plant causing necrotic rings, flower abortion and punctured fruits. Thus, its role as biocontrol agent is controversial. Especially in Northern Europe, where N. tenuis has invaded recently, N. tenuis is considered a pest. Despite the importance of N. tenuis in Northern Europe, there is no information about the damage it may inflict on commercial tomato varieties. Thus, in this study, we evaluated the preference and plant damage caused by N. tenuis on twenty-one commercially available tomato cultivars. N. tenuis showed preference for certain tomato varieties. Higher N. tenuis populations on the plants resulted in more necrotic rings. A clearer distinction between the different tomato cultivars was the sensitivity for flower abortion. We observed that small fruit cultivars (cherry, plum) were more susceptible to suffering flower abortion compared to larger fruit-bearing cultivars (truss, beef) because of N. tenuis feeding. Interestingly, we identified tomato cultivars that supported high population densities of N. tenuis without suffering flower abortion. Analyses of plant nutrients suggest that the damage (percentage of necrotic rings) inflicted by N. tenuis was negatively associated with the amount of total sugars, sodium, chloride, sulphur and copper and positively associated with nutrients such as potassium, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. The new insights provided herein about the interaction between N. tenuis and plant damage are relevant for growers, IPM consultants and plant breeders.