The tomato moth,
Tuta absoluta
Meyrick, is a serious pest on tomatoes (Lycopersicon
esculentum
L.) crops in Chile. Laboratory studies were conducted to evaluate the virulence and effectiveness of the isolates
Metarhizium anisopliae
var.
anisopliae isolate Qu-M558 and
Beauveria bassiana
isolate Qu-B912, on third instar of
T. absoluta larvae. The first evaluation was carried out spraying directly on third instar larvae, spore suspensions (0 to 108 conidia mL
-1) of each isolate through a Potter tower. Comparisons were made by calculating the area under a mortality progress curve. Differences were not observed in the areas between isolates (P = 0.384). The LC
50 and LC
90 for Qu-B912 were 10
4.4 and 10
7.6 conidia mL
-1, and for Qu-M558 were 10
5.4 and 10
9.1 conidia mL
-1, respectively. A second evaluation was carried out spraying on tomato leaves spore suspensions (0 to 108 conidia mL
-1) of Qu-B912 isolate through a Potter tower. Third stage
T. absoluta larvae were fed with these infected leaves. Thirteen days after inoculation doses of 108 conidias mL
-1 caused 68% of larvae mortality.