ABSTRACT
The present work had the objective to study the behavior of Chrysoperla externa in tomato genotypes infested with eggs of Bemisia tabaci biotype B. The experiment were carried out with PI 127826, PI 127827 and PI 134417 wild genotypes and the commercial Santa Clara and Bruna VFN hybrid. The Green lacewings and whitefly rearing were reared for the bioassays. Five 1st-instar larvae of green lacewing, without feeding per six hours, were released on the superior part of plant in each tomato genotype. The larvae behavior was observed during 15 minutes, checking the parameters: meeting or no meeting of prey, difficulty to walk on the leaflets and time of permanence on plant. Five adult-males and seven adult-females of C. externa were released in a cage with two tomato genotype plants. After seven days, the number of predator eggs was counted and the place of this oviposition nated. It was concluded that the presence of glandulars trichomes negatively affected the capacity for seeking and meeting of prey modifying directly the capacity of C. externa. Despite their presenting little or non preference for the ovoposition of the predator, this would not be a limiting factor for the use of this species in the control of whitefly, since this predator does not lay eggs near its prey.
KEY WORDS:
Insecta; Lycopersicon; Chrysopidae; whitefly.