Twenty-eight greenhouse screening materials, with predetermined airflow resistance values, were evaluated for exclusion of the silverleaf whitefly Bemisia argentifolii Perring & Bellows and thrips from a mixed-species population. Screens differed in exclusion efficacy, expressed as a percentage of the fiberglass window screen control and at an approach velocity of 92 m/min, from -35 to 94% for ...

An unattended pest control system was developed to eliminate whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) that settled on greenhouse tomato plants. The exploited the whitefly’s habit of flying up from a plant mechanically tapped and then heading toward yellow objects. Remote-controlled dollies with arms plants yellow-colored double-charged dipolar electric field screens (YDD-EFSs) (oppositely electrified transp...

Plants are routinely exposed to biotic and abiotic stresses to which they have evolved by synthesizing constitutive and induced defense compounds. Induced defense compounds are usually made, initially, at low levels; however, following further stimulation by specific kinds of biotic and abiotic stresses, they can be synthesized in relatively large amounts to abate the particular stress. cDNA mi...

BACKGROUND The whitefly Bemisa tabaci is a species complex of more than 31 cryptic species which include some of the most destructive invasive pests of crops worldwide. Among them, Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) and Mediterranean have invaded many countries and displaced the native whitefly species. The successful invasion of the two species is largely due to their wide range of host plants, ...

The sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci Genn., has been present in Arizona since the first cultivation of cotton in the 1920s (Russell 1975). For much of its history, its importance was as a sporadic pest and vector of cotton leaf crumple virus. Meanwhile around the world, outbreaks of whiteflies were recorded in cotton in places like the Sudan, Punjab of India, and Israel. The New World also ...

The impacts of infestation by the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) on sweetpotato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) settling on tomato were determined in seven separate experiments with whole plants and with detached leaves through manipulation of four factors: durations of aphid infestation, density of aphids, intervals between aphid removal after different durations of infestation and the time of w...

Theory predicts that intraguild consumers such as predators or parasitoids may displace more specialized heterospecific competitors and thereby actually increase the population densities of a shared host or prey. We tested this idea with a native primary parasitoid, Eretmocerus eremicus, and an exotic autoparasitoid Encarsia sophia, both attacking the sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Autopa...

For many insect-vectored plant viruses, the relationship between feeding behavior and vector competence may prove integral to an understanding of the epidemiology of the resulting plant disease. While plant-infecting viruses are well known to change host plant physiology in a way that makes them more attractive to vectors, viral manipulation of the vectors themselves has only recently been repo...

Interference competition between closely related alien and indigenous species often influences the outcome of biological invasions. The whitefly Bemisia tabaci species complex contains ≥28 putative species and two of them, Mediterranean (MED, formally referred to as the 'Q biotype') and Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1, formally referred to as the 'B biotype'), have recently spread to much of th...