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Giant Whitefly

 

Aleurodicus dugesii Cockerell -- Hemiptera:  Aleyrodidae

 

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       This whitefly a pest of fifty or more ornamental plants.  It was found in San Diego County in 1992, and continued to spread northward to San Francisco Bay and Butte County.  It is a threat to plant nurseries and landscape providers.  The whitefly is a native of Mexico and invaded other areas with the introductions of infested plants.

 

       Many ornamental plants are damaged by this whitefly including hibiscus, begonia, bird of paradise, lilies, and banana, and has also attacked citrus trees.  The wide host range and an ability to reproduce rapidly in the absence of natural enemies make it one the most serious pest of ornamental plants and home landscapes in California.

 

       Reproduction is rapid and population levels may become quite high particularly on some hibiscus plants.  Young whitefly nymphs produce large quantities of wax, which coat the undersurface of leaves.  Whitefly adults and young feed on plant sap, removing  important nutrients.  This causes defoliation; stunting and the plant will die.  Sticky honeydew is also excreted by whiteflies while they feed, covering leaf surfaces and other nearby plants and favoring the growth of black sooty mold.  The insect also spreads into houses and automobiles and will infest clothing as well.  There has been considerable public annoyance to this pest, which in some people manifests severe allergenic symptoms.

 

       Until there are natural enemies found in Mexico and established in the United States there are two temporary control procedures for the giant whitefly.  One is to periodically spray affected plants and surfaces with hose water to wash away webbing and sugary deposits left by the white flies.  If there are ants present around the infestations a second mode of attack would be to scatter fire ant bait around the premises.  The baits may be found in most hardware stores, and although they were developed to control fire ants in the southeastern United States, they are also effective against the Argentine ant which at times are found in large numbers in and outside dwellings.  These ants seek the sugary deposits of the whiteflies and actually protect them from predatory insects.

 

REFERENCES:                                                                                               FURTHER RELATED REFERENCES

 

Clausen, C. P.  1978.  Aleyrodidae.  In:  Introduced Parasites and Predators of Arthropod Pests and Weeds.  U. S. Dept. Agric. Agric. Handbk. No. 480, Washington, D.C.  545 p.

 

Cockerell, T. D. A.  1896.  A Mexican Aleurodicus.  Canadian Entomologist  28:  302.

 

DeBach, P.  1974.  Biological Control by Natural Enemies.  Cambridge Univ. Press, London, New York.  323 p.

 

Dreistadt, S. H., J. K. Clark & M. L. Flint. 2001. Integrated Pest Management for Floriculture and Nurseries. UCANR Publication 3402. Oakland, CA.

 

Hidayat, P., E. Maryana, Y. M. Kusumah & L. Nurulaila.  2019.  Host range and population density of the giant whitefly Aleurodicus dugesii Cockerell (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) on horticultural crops in Cipanas-Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia.  Southeast Asia Plant Conference.  Bogor, Indonesia 2019 14 August 2019.  Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 468:  012008.

 

Kennett, C. E., J. A. McMurtry & J. W. Beardsley.  1999.  Biological control in subtropical and tropical crops.  Bellows, T. S. & T. W. Fisher (eds.), Handbook of Biological Control:  Principles and Applications.  Academic Press, San Diego, New York.  1046 p.

 

Kodama, G.  1931.  Studies on Aleurocanthus spiniferus Quaint.  Kagoshima-Ken, Kyushu, Japan. 38 p. (Abstract in Rev. Appl. Ent. (A):  113).

 

Kuwana, I. & T. Ishii.  1927.  On Prospaltella smithi Silv., and Cryptognatha sp., the enemies of Aleurocanthus spiniferus, imported from Canton, China.   Journal Okitsu Horticulture Society 22:  77-80.

 

Kuwana, I.  1934.  Notes on a newly imported parasite of the spiny white fly attacking citrus in Japan.  5th Pacific Science Congress Proc. (1933)  5:  3521-3523.

 

Nakao, H. K. & G. Y. Funasaki.  1975.  Introductions for biological control.  Proceedings Hawaiian Entomology Soc. 22:  329-31.

 

Peterson, G. D., Jr.  1955.  Biological control of the spiny whitefly in Guam.  Journal of Economic Entomology 48:  681-83.

 

Sawada, E., N. Ikeda & K. Tanaka.  1932.  Studies on Prospaltella smithi Silv., an enemy of Aleurocanthus spiniferus Quaint.  Japan Dept. Agric. & Forestry Bureau of Agricultural Materials for Agriculture Improvement 42:  1-28.

 

Sampson, W. W. & Drews, E. A.  1941.  Fauna Mexicana IV. A review of the Aleyrodidae of Mexico.  Anales de la Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biologicas  2:  143-189.

 

Schoeller, Erich N. &  Richard A Redak.  2018.  Temperature-Dependent Development and Survival of Giant Whitefly Aleurodicus dugesii (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Under Constant Temperatures.  Environmental Entomology, Volume 47, Issue 6, December 2018, Pages 1586–1595.

 

Smith, H. D., H. L. Maltby & J. E. Jimenez.  1964.  Biological control of the citrus blackfly in Mexico.  U. S. Dept. Agric. Tech. Bull. 1311:  30 p.

 

Windbiel-Rojas, K. & Sikes B. Messenger.  2020. Pest Notes: Sooty Mold. UC ANR Publication 74108. Oakland, CA.

 

 

FURTHER RELATED REFERENCES:

 

Chiappini, E., S. V. Triapitzin & A. Donev.  1996.  Key to the Holarctic species of Anagrus Haliday (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) with a review of the Nearctic and Palaearctic (other than European) species and descriptions of new taxa.  Journal of Natural History 30:  551-595.

 

Triapitzin, S. V.  1995a.  The identities of Anagrus (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) egg parasitoid of the grape and blackberry leafhoppers (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) in California.  Pan-Pacific Entomol. 71 (4):  250-251.

 

Triapitzin, S. V.  1995b.  A review of the Australian species of Anagrus (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae).  Russian Entomological Journal 4 (1-4):  105-108.

 

Triapitzin, S. V.  1997.  The genus Anagrus (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) in America south of the United States: a review.  Ceiba (Zamorano, Honduras) 38 (1):  1-12.

 

Triapitzin, S. V.  1998.  Anagrus (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) egg parasitoids of Erythroneura spp. and other leafhoppers (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) in North American vineyards and orchards: a taxonomic review.  Transactions of the American Entomological Society. 124 (2):  77-112.

 

Triapitzin, S. V. & D. Strong.  1995.  A new Anagrus (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), an egg parasitoid of Prokelisia spp. (Homoptera: Delphacidae).  Pan-Pacific Entomol. 71 (4):  199-203.

 

Triapitzin, S. V., R. F. Mizell III,  J. L. Bossart & C. E. Carlton.  1998.  Egg parasitoids of Homalodisca coagulata (Homoptera: Cicadellidae).  Florida Entomologist 81 (2):  241-243.

 

Walker, G. P., N. Zareh, I. M. Bayoun & S. V. Triapitzin.  1997.  Introduction of western Asian egg parasitoids into California for biological control of beet leafhopper, Circulifer tenellus.  Pan-Pacific Entomologist 73 (4):  236-242.