Developmental biology of Liriomyza chinensis (Diptera: Agromyzidae) on onion

Abstract

The stone leek leafminer, Liriomyza chinensis (Kato), has become a serious pest on Allium spp. in several Asian countries. However, knowledge concerning the biology of L. chinenis, which affect development of control programs, is still limited. The biology of the leafminer on onion was investigated at a constant temperature of 25°C and a photoperiod of 16L: 8D. To distinguish different larval instars, some morphological characteristics such as the length of mouth hooks, cephalopharyngeal skeleton, body and mine were measured. The length of mouth hooks and cephalopharyngeal skeleton of first, second and third instars were 0.021 mm and 0.089 mm, 0.054 mm and 0.165 mm, and 0.092 mm and 0.261 mm, respectively. Developmental time for the immature stages was 22.6 days; pupal development lasted slightly longer than the combined egg and larval stages. The females laid a mean of 108 eggs and fed on 1013.9 punctures during an average lifespan of 9 days. Feeding and fecundity peaked at age 5 days. The intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm) (day-1), net reproduction (Ro), and generation time (T) (day) were 0.099, 14.3 and 27.1, respectively.