Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), 1936

Martin, Jon H., 2005, Whiteflies of Belize (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Part 2 - a review of the subfamily Aleyrodinae Westwood, Zootaxa 1098 (1), pp. 1-116 : 36-37

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius)

( Figs 25–27 )

Aleurodes tabaci Gennadius, 1889: 1–3 . Lectotype, Greece (designated by Martin, 1999: 59–60).

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) Takahashi, 1936: 110 .

Bemisia argentifolii Bellows & Perring , in Bellows et al., 1994: 196. Holotype, California. [Synonymised by De Barro et al., 2005: 201.]

DISTRIBUTION. Cosmopolitan in all warmer parts of the world.

COMMENTS. B. tabaci , variously known under the common names tobacco, cotton or sweet potato whitefly, is much the most investigated of whitefly species because of the many problems it causes in worldwide agriculture. Cock (1986) published a survey of the literature on B. tabaci , with 829 entries, and an update followed ( Cock, 1993). Many other communications have been published subsequently, most commonly on molecular investigations (see below) and on aspects of plant virus transmission.

B. tabaci has been regarded as a morphologically variable single species, with an exceptionally wide range of host plants, following the demonstration of the phenomenon of puparial plasticity ( Figs 25–27 ) by Mound (1963). However, more recent investigations have shown many field­collected populations (“biotypes”) to have small host plant ranges, with some behaving as though monophagous. Indeed, Mound had found the transfer of populations from one host to another to be a great obstacle during his experimental work on host­induced morphological variation. Several such population biotypes have been recognised for some years, but the development of new techniques for the study of cytology and molecular sequencing has led to many more being recognised. A situation of great complexity, controversy and nomenclatural confusion has now arisen, and this was compounded when “biotype B” was eventually given its own species name, B. argentifolii Bellows & Perring (in Bellows et al, 1994), and its own common name, “silverleaf whitefly” (from the visible feeding damage caused to squash plants). However, the other recognised biotypes were not treated in this way, with many workers agreeing that the naming of B. argentifolii was premature. De Barro et al. (2005) have declared B. argentifolii to be a race of B. tabaci and, thus, its junior synonym but much controversy remains.

The characters for distinguishing B. tabaci sensu lato from the B. afer / B. centroamericana ­group are discussed under B. centroamericana , above.

Throughout this study, only a single sample of B. tabaci was discovered, feeding on a small euphorbiaceous herb, by the side of the CFR access road.

Figures

FIGURES 25–28. 25–27, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), puparia, demonstrating variation within the species, 27 with enlarged detail of vasiform orifice and caudal setae; 28, Aleuroglandulus striatus Sampson & Drews, puparium (after Russell, 1944), with enlarged detail of thoracic tracheal comb, and setae at base of middle leg (see Fig. 88 for photograph).