126 ISSN 2075-1117, Russian Journal of Biological Invasions, 2020, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 126–131. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2020. Russian Text © The Author(s), 2020, published in Rossiiskii Zhurnal Biologicheskikh Invazii, 2020, No. 1, pp. 30–37. The Role of Thermal Adaptation in the Distribution of the Tomato Pest Tuta absoluta K. A. Perevertin a, *, Sh. Rawashdah b, **, V. G. Zaetc c, ***, D. N. Kozlov d, ****, N. A. Vasilyeva d , and T. A. Vasiliev d a Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow, 119071 Russia b National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension of the Kingdom of Jordan, Amman, 11621 Jordan c Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, 117198 Russia d Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute, Moscow, 119017 Russia *e-mail: perevertink@mail.ru **e-mail: rwashdah@yahoo.com ***e-mail: zaets05@mail.ru ****e-mail: kozlov_dn@esoil.ru Received November 12, 2018; revised February 4, 2020; accepted February 14, 2020 Abstract—The relatively recent (2006) transatlantic invasion of the tomato moth Tuta absoluta from South America into the Old World is considered. On the basis of the use of the thermal and adaptive mathematical model of ontogenesis of T. absoluta, a conclusion is made about the threat of this pest species not only for sheltered soils but also for plantations of open soils (a possibility of development of at least two generations for Moscow oblast and at least four for Krasnodar krai). Keywords: Tuta absoluta, ontogenesis, evaluative mathematical model, biological contamination of agrolandscapes DOI: 10.1134/S207511172002006X INTRODUCTION The consideration of pests as bioinvasive objects is of both theoretical interest in the study of the relations of a highly specialized pest–host plant and of the most important applied value. A well-known phenomenon that received from the historian A. Crosby the name “Columbian exchange” (Crosby, 1989) can be defined as a complex of anthro- pogenic transatlantic bioinvasions that radically trans- formed the biocenoses of both the Old and the New World. Having actively begun about 500 years ago, it continues to this day. A striking example is the inter- continental invasion of tomato leafminer Tuta absoluta discussed in this paper (Meirick, 1917; Povolny, 1994), which began with the catastrophic loss of tomatoes in Spain in 2006 and quickly spread to Eurasia and Africa. For Russia, the results of the vital activity of a dan- gerous quarantine object, the tomato leafminer, since the first report in 2009 (Kaliningrad) are repeatedly recorded in various subjects of the Russian Federation (Izhevsky et al., 2011; Ravashdeh and Zaets, 2011; Ravashdeh, 2014; Perevertin and Zaets, 2016), how- ever, catastrophic consequences at the regional level have not yet been noted. It is customary to link this, first of all, with the features of thermal adaptation of the pest. When establishing thermal determinant values of cycles of ontogenesis of tomato moth, research was conducted in Jordan—a region of Mediterranean dis- tribution T. absoluta, where it is already everywhere present, not being an object of either external or inter- nal quarantine. The aim of the work is to assess the risks of large- scale naturalization of tomato moth with the con- struction of an appraisal mathematical model of onto- genesis using the example of the climatic conditions of the regions of the Russian Federation (Moscow oblast and Krasnodar krai). MATERIALS AND METHODS Studies were carried out in the Kingdom of Jordan and in Russia (Moscow). (1) Kingdom of Jordan. The main field and labora- tory studies were carried out from 2010 to 2013 at the experimental base of the Deir Alla Agricultural Station at the National Center for Agricultural Research Development (El-Karak) (Ravashdeh, 2014). Collec- tion of source biomaterial (larvae T. absoluta) for lab- oratory research was carried out on tomato plants in the field and in the production protected soils of com- modity agricultural producers. In the experiments, the