Aleurotrachelus trachoides (Back), 1914

Martin, Jon H., 2005, Whiteflies of Belize (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Part 2 - a review of the subfamily Aleyrodinae Westwood, Zootaxa 1098 (1), pp. 1-116 : 24-25

Aleurotrachelus trachoides (Back)

( Figs 17, 100)

Aleyrodes trachoides Back, 1912: 151–153 . Syntypes, Cuba.

Aleurotrachelus trachoides (Back) Quaintance & Baker, 1914: 103 .

DISTRIBUTION. Neotropical Region: widely distributed; Ethiopian Region: Gambia (see below); Pacific Region: widely distributed.

COMMENTS. A. trachoides is a native of the Neotropical Region, but had become established in Tahiti by the 1930s (BMNH). It has become more widespread across the Pacific since the late 1970s, and is now also in Hawaii (late 1990s) and Guam (2003). A recent quarantine interception in England, on plant material from Gambia, indicates possible establishment in the Ethiopian Region ( Malumphy, 2005). A. trachoides has been called the solanum whitefly by some people, and it does seem to favour hosts in the Solanaceae , but it also feeds on several other plants, including aroids ( Araceae ), frangipanni ( Apocynaceae ) and Convolvulaceae .

Belize Aleurotrachelus species 2 (Appendix 1) closely resembles A. trachoides , apparently differing only in the puparial lingula being less broad and less posteriorly notched. In Belize species 4, the characters of the lingula and submargin strongly resemble A. trachoides , but the marginal teeth are strongly castellate and not markedly paler than the dorsal disc as they are in A. trachoides .