Endophytic fungi are microorganisms that internally infect living plant tissues without causing any visible symptoms and can influence their host’s physiology, primary and secondary metabolism, and indirectly influence the performance of herbivorous arthropods through changes in the quality of plants. We investigated the responses of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) to two species of entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae as endophytes with different methods of seed dressing and foliar spraying, and their impact on tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta as herbivore. Our results indicate that these two entomopathogenic fungi, as endophytes, have the potential for infiltration and systematic growth in tomato from leaf tissue, and also their colonization rate increased over time. Following the inoculation of tomatoes with these endophytic fungi, the growth of aerial and underground tissues of treated tomatoes can be affected, and the total phenolic and flavonoid contents and DPPH scavenging activity changed in different tissues (leaves, stem, and root) over the time compared to the control. Both fungi as endophyte in tomato can reduce the preference of T. absoluta in choice and no-choice test. In addition, T. absoluta larval development time after feeding the treated tomato with endophytic fungi decreased. Furthermore, the number of dead larvae and pupal duration increased, and the female fecundity decreased over time in populations of T. absoluta reared on tomatoes colonized by fungal endophytes. Also, the ratio of males to females of newly emerged adults of tomato leaf miner was changed to male biased. Our results indicate that B. bassiana and M. anisopliae can be used as endophytes in ecofriendly pest control programs, and this natural and sustainable method can provide an alternative to synthetic pesticides, which can have negative impacts on the environment and human health

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