Global relationships of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) revealed using Bayesian analysis of mitochondrial COI DNA sequences.

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a species complex that is one of the most devastating agricultural pests worldwide and affects a broad range of food, fiber and ornamental crops. Unfortunately, using parsimony and neighbor joining methods, global phylogenetic relationships of the major races/biotypes of B. tabaci remain unresolved.

Matching the origin of an invasive weed for selection of a herbivore haplotype for a biological control programme.

The Florida Everglades have been invaded by an exotic weed fern, Lygodium microphyllum. Across its native distribution in the Old World tropics from Africa to Australasia it was found to have multiple location-specific haplotypes. Within this distribution, the climbing fern is attacked by a phytophagous mite, Floracarus perrepae, also with multiple haplotypes.

Wolbachia infections of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci.

We report the first systematic survey for the presence of Wolbachia endosymbionts in aphids and whiteflies, particularly different populations and biotypes of Bemisia tabaci. Additional agriculturally important species included were predator species, leafhoppers, and lepidopterans. We used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based detection assay with ribosomal 16S rDNA and Wolbachia cell surface protein (wsp) gene primers.