Visual Rating System for Assessing Liriomyza spp. (Diptera: Agromyzidae) Leafmining on Tomato1

A visual rating system was developed to assess the total number of leaf mines produced by Liriomyza spp. on tomato foliage samples. The system consisted of a scale from I to 8 which corresponded to increases in the estimated numbers of leaf mines from 0 to 24 per foliar sample. Under field conditions, the number of leaf mines estimated by the rating system was significantly correlated (r = 0.95, P < 0.05) with the actual number of leaf mines counted. The amount of time required to assess the number of leaf mines by the rating system was 80% less than that required by the counting method.