Diversidad de artrópodos y fluctuación poblacional de Trialeurodes vaporariorum en cultivo de tomate bajo invernadero con diferentes sistemas de manejo

Tomato (Solanum lycopercisi) is one of the main crops in Uruguay in terms of consumption, and in the south of the country the area of this crop in greenhouses has been increasing in recent years. The greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, is one of the main pests in the greenhouse tomato crops and its control is carried out mainly with the use of insecticides. However, controlling this pest in this way is becoming more and more difficult. Biological control, using entomopathogens and arthropods, is an alternative tool to be included in farm management. The objective of this work was to evaluate and compare the evolution of the whitefly T. vaporariorum population and the diversity of arthropods in greenhouse tomato crops in conventional and organic farms. Sampling was carried out with a frequency of 15 days by visual monitoring of tomato leaves and every 7 days by placing sticky traps. The results obtained were that the whitefly was present in all four farms, but in the conventional farms it was above the intervention threshold, while in the organic farms it remained in low populations throughout the sampling. The diversity of arthropods evaluated through the calculation of Shannon indexes based on species and/or morphospecies was significantly higher in the organic farms.