whitefly

A small, sap-sucking bug; adults active fliers; bodies and wings covered with a waxy, white powder; immature stages immobile, typically found on underside of leaves; commonly produces honeydew, and attended by ants. (Order: Homoptera. Family: Aleyrodidae, c.1200 species.)

The whiteflies, comprising only the family Aleyrodidae, are small hemipterans which typically feed on the underside of plant leaves. While several species of whitefly cause crop losses through direct feeding, a species complex, or group of whiteflies in the genus Bemisia are important in the transmission of plant diseases. New crop varieties are also being developed with increased tolerance to the whiteflies, and to the whitefly-transmitted plant diseases. Proper diagnosis of plant diseases depends on using sophisticated molecular techniques to detect and characterize the viruses and whiteflies which are present in a crop. The whitefly is also been shown to transmit almost all of the 60 known whitefly transmitted plant viral diseases.

Whitefly damage by feeding: Whiteflies feed by tapping into the phloem of plants, which carries food down the plant to the roots. Plants have vascular tissues that carry water Xylem up the plant, where it combines with photosynthesis to produce the needed food for plant growth.

One well known species is the greenhouse whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) which is a major pest in greenhouses but there are other pest species such as the bandedwinged whitefly and the silverleaf whitefly.