Crops: Cotton Insect Pests
White flies -Bemesia tabaci (Aleyrodidae : Homoptera)
- Highly polyphagous.
- Nymphs are oval, scale like and remain attached to the leaf surface .
- Adults are tiny, moth-like with yellowish body and wings coated with milky white waxy powder
- Nymphs and adults suck sap usually from the undersurface of the leaves and excrete honey dew.
- Leaves show a uniform bronzing and get coated with sooty mold.
- Vegetative growth is retarded, boll formation hampered
- Severe infestation after boll bursting makes the lint sticky due to deposition of honey dew. It also transmits the leaf curl virus.
- Temperatures around 30 ”ĘC and high humid situations helps multiplication of the est.
