~ 108 ~ Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 2025; 13(1): 108-112 E-ISSN: 2320-7078 P-ISSN: 2349-6800 www.entomoljournal.com JEZS 2025; 13(1): 108-112 © 2025 JEZS Received: 24-10-2024 Accepted: 30-11-2024 Srinivas G Department of Entomology, NMCA, Navsari Agricultural University, Gujarat, India Dr. Sushil Kumr Department of Plant Protection, ACHF, Navsari Agricultural University, Gujarat, India Corresponding Author: Dr. Sushil Kumr Department of Plant Protection, ACHF, Navsari Agricultural University, Gujarat, India Comparative Abundance of major pests of tomato in relation to crop phenology and cropping systems Srinivas G and Sushil Kumr DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/j.ento.2025.v13.i1b.9455 Abstract The prevalence of the important tomato (cv. GT 2) pests, which include the fruit borer (Helicoverpa armigera), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) and red spider mite (Tetranychus urticae), was investigated in both conventional and organic tomato farming systems at Navsari Agricultural University in Gujarat from 2018 to 2020. Fruit damage was observed at the fruiting stage (21.56 & 18.27%), as evidenced by the higher populations of shoot and fruit borer (1.75 & 1.51). Significant and positive correlations between pest population and fruit damage with crop stage were found (r' = 0.705 & 0.694 and r' = 0.778 & 0.777), suggesting advancement in crop stage (vegetative to flowering to fruiting stage) led to increased pest population and damage. Highest whitefly population was noticed at flowering stage (2.19 & 3.10/leaf) in both the farming methods. Correlation of whitefly with crop stages in farming systems was significant and positive (r’ = 0.552 & 0.508) implying advancement in crop growth increased whitefly population. Lastly, the highest Red spider mite population was noticed at fruiting stage (23.19 & 29.53/2 cm 2 leaf area) in both the farming systems. Correlation of mite population with crop stages was positive and significant (r’ = 0.814 & 0.839) implying advancement in crop stage led to an increase in mite population in both the farming systems. Keywords: Crop phenology, Farming system, tomato, Pests Introduction Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) belonging to the family Solanaceae is one of the most popular and widely grown vegetable crop. The tomato popularly called as “Poormans Orange” is an important solanaceous vegetable fruit originated from Tropical America (Thompson and Kelly, 1957) [11] . It ranks second to potato. Its productivity in India is 19 tonnes per hectare (Anonymous, 2006) [1] . The estimated area under tomato in India is 6.33 lakh hectares with 124.25 lakh tonnes of fruit production. In Gujarat, it is grown in 0.34 lakh hectares with production of 8.41 lakh tonnes and productivity of 24.89 tonnes per hectare (Anonymous, 2010) [2] . With increasing quest of higher demand of this vegetable crop in India and elsewhere, there is considerable increase in its area. Due to this, there is considerable upsurge in the already reported pests and record of new invasive pest like tomato leaf miner/south American tomato moth, Tuta absoluta (Sridhar et al., 2014) [9] . Amongst various pests reported in India, as many as sixteen have been observed feeding from germination to the harvesting stage which not only reduce its yield but also deteriorate the quality (Butani, 1977) [3] . The important insect pests of tomato are fruit borer (Helicoverpa armigera), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci), leaf hopper (Amrasca devastans), leaf miner (Liriomyza trifolii), potato aphid (Myzus persicae) and hadda beetle (Epilachana dodecastigma) (Sharma et al., 2013) [8] . The most common and serious insect pest of tomato is fruit borer (H. armigera) due to its direct attack on fruits, high mobility, voracious feeding habit, high fecundity, multivoltine and overlapping generations whereas major sucking pests are whitefly and red spider mite. A comprehensive understanding of pest abundance in connection to crop phenological stages serves as a crucial foundation for the development of effective pest management techniques, particularly when it comes to managing the pest in various farming systems (Srinivas and Kumar, 2022) [10] . With particular reference to tomato, no systematic attempts were undertaken to observe the pests diversity in connection to crop phenological stages under conventional and