Figure 1.

The impact of Ma. sexta leaf herbivory on the number of M. incognita root galls, and the impact of M. incognita root infection on Ma. sexta larval weight. Tomato plants were challenged with M. incognita eggs or Ma. sexta larvae, or with both herbivores at the same time. A, Three weeks later the number of galls was counted in plants challenged with M. incognita alone and in roots of plants that were also challenged with Ma. sexta feeding on the shoots (M. incognita + Ma. sexta). B, During the bioassay (three weeks), Ma. sexta larvae were replaced weekly with newly hatched neonates to avoid the consumption of the entire shoot biomass. The weight of Ma. sexta larvae was recorded at the end of every weekly feeding period (first week, second week, and third week). The weight of Ma. sexta larvae feeding on plants that were challenged with Ma. sexta alone (Ma. sexta) and larvae feeding on plants that were also root-inoculated with M. incognita eggs (Ma. sexta + M. incognita) was recorded. Box plots represent the interquartile range (IQR), the bisecting line represents the median, the whiskers represent 1.5 times the IQR, the dots represent outlier points, and the data are from 10 individual plants. In (A), the asterisk indicates significant differences between the treatments according to Student’s t test (P ≤ 0.05). In (B), ns: not significant.