Phthia picta (Drury, 1770) is an important pest of the tomato culture. There are not studies on this bug under controlled conditions. So, this report was developed this work aiming at the study of this insect biology in a comercial cultivar of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill). The study was carried out in the Laboratório de Entomologia, Departamento de Fitossanidade, Faculdade de Agronomia, UFRGS, under controlled conditions (26 ± 1ºC; 70 ± 10% RH and photophase of 14h), using as food leaves and fruits of the Carmen cultivar tomato. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th stages lasted 3.26, 6.91, 7.91, 7.12 and 11.25 days, respectively. The duration of the nymphal phase was 34.39 days. The mortality rate was higher in the 3rd, 4th and 5th stages. In the nymphal phase the mortality was 56.0%. The number of eggs/female, oviposition/female and eggs/oviposition was 60.43, 6.14 and 9.84, respectively. The egg incubation period was 10.90 days and the hatching percentagewas 65.87%.
Insecta; bug; Lycopersicon esculentum; laboratory
