Determination of Endosymbiont bacteria species of Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) populations from Central African country Chad

The South American tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta (Meyrick, 1917) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the most harmful to tomato. The pest was determined within this study first time in Chad, in which the tomato plays a very important socio-economic and nutritional role. In the interviews made with tomato producers in the surveys in Chad, it was understood that there were great economic losses in tomato production due to T. absoluta and that they were generally unsuccessful in chemical control. The thesis study was carried out to determine the endosymbiont bacteria Wolbachia, Rickettsia and Spiroplasma in the populations of T. absoluta in Chad. In the surveys made for this purpose, T. absoluta larvae could only be collected from Am-timan and Moundou regions of Chad. Presence and presence rates of endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia, Rickettsia and Spiroplasma were determined by PCR reaction in a total of 16 larvae, 10 larvae from Moundou settlement and six larvae from Am-timan region The mean incidence in each region was determined as 87.5% for Wolbachia infection, 100% for Rickettsia infection and 93.75% for Spiroplasma infection. As a result, Wolbachia, Rickettsia and Spiroplasma have been detected in the records of T. absoluta in Chad. Spiroplasma and Rickettsia progressed at a high rate in our study, which have been little explored to date.