Populations of whiteflies [Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) sl.] and the rates at which they were parasitized in cotton fields in Israel and California were monitored over a number of years. Studies took place both in fields that were treated with insecticides and in untreated fields and permitted us to assess the influence of insecticidal treatments upon percentage parasitism. The results showed tha...

Amitu8 bennetti Viggiani & Evans is a recently discovered parasitoid of whiteflies in the genus Bemisia, including the serious pests Bemisa tabaci (Gennadius) and Bemisia argentifolii Bellows & PelTing. The reproductive biology and the host searching behavior of A. bennetti was studied in the laboratory, using B, a'rgentifolii as a host. The developmental time for A. bennetti from egg to adult ...

Whiteflies are important agricultural insect pests, whose evolutionary success is related to a long-term association with a bacterial endosymbiont, Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum. To completely characterize this endosymbiont clade, we sequenced the genomes of three new Portiera strains covering the two extant whitefly subfamilies. Using endosymbiont and mitochondrial sequences we estimated t...

The predatory bug Orius sauteri is an indigenous natural enemy of thrips and whiteflies in Asian countries. To put these bugs to practical use in pest management, methods to attract and retain the bugs in agricultural fields are needed. We previously showed that violet light (405 nm) attracts O. sauteri selectively. Many thrips and whiteflies are attracted to UV or green light. In this study, w...

Two types of geminate structures were purified from African cassava mosaic geminivirus (ACMV)-infected Nicotiana benthamiana plants and analyzed by electron cryomicroscopy and image reconstruction. After cesium sulfate density gradient centrifugation, they were separated into lighter top (T) and heavier bottom (B) components. T particles comigrated with host proteins, whereas B particles were c...

The impact of symbionts on their insect hosts depends on their infection density. In the current study, we investigated the effects of host plants (cucumber, cabbage, and cotton) on the relative amount of symbionts Portiera and Hamiltonella in the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) Q. The relative amounts of symbionts in 3 host plant B. tabaci Q populations with the same genetic background wer...

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) production is seriously hampered by the infestation of the sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci MEAM 1 (Middle East-Asia Minor 1). The infestation behavior of the whiteflies could be affected by the quantity of plant released volatile organic compounds (VOCs) related to nitrogen concentrations of the plant. In this study, we determined the infestation behavior of B...

The whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) is a pest and vector of plant viruses to crop and ornamental plants worldwide. Using RNA interference (RNAi) to down regulate whitefly genes by expressing their homologous double stranded RNAs in plants has great potential for management of whiteflies to reduce plant virus disease spread. Using a Tobacco rattle virus-derived plasmid for in planta transient ex...

Bacteriocytes are insect cells harboring symbiotic bacteria that are required by their insect host and are transmitted vertically via the female ovary [1]. In most insect groups, the bacteria are released from the bacteriocytes and transferred to the ovary [2, 3], but in whiteflies, maternal bacteriocytes migrate to each egg [4-6], where they have been reported to lyse, releasing the symbionts ...

The discovery of the Aleurocanthus cf. spiniferus (Tea spiny whitefly morphotype; previously found in Tokyo) for first time Shizuoka Prefecture raised possibility that this species had invaded Honshu Island, Japan. Unlike allied species, and A. camelliae, which have been intercepted from China to Japan, origin current remains unclear. Despite status as a minor pest on ornamental plant, Eurya ja...