Resistance of Tomato Cultivars to the Fruitworm, Heliothis zea(Boddie)1

A collection of 1,030 accessions of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), mostly cultivars and assumed cultivars, was evaluated for resistance to the tomato fruitworm. Although no immunity was found, there were significant differences in the degree of susceptibility. The most resistant cultivar, ‘Tiny Tim’, was 83.1 and 57.6% less damaged than the susceptible and resistant controls, respectively. Even though the data were possibly confounded by vine-size effects, indications are that much of the variability can be used to develop less susceptible cultivars.