Study of Host Preference and the Comparison of some Biological Characteristcs of Bemisia Tabasi (Genn) on Tomato Varieties

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The resistance of 8 tomato varieties to cotton white fly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), was evaluated in four greenhouse experiments. In the first experiment, we evaluated the attractiveness and preference for oviposition in a free-choice test (randomized blocks, 8 treatments, and 5 replications). In the other experiments, we evaluated the no-choice preference for oviposition (randomized blocks, 4 treatments, and 4 replications). The whitefly egg-adult cycle was monitored using a statistical design in randomized blocks with four replications. The percentage mortality of immature stages was also determined (randomized blocks with four replications). In the free-choice test, the tomato variety Rio Grande was the most attractive to adults, while the variety Cheffalat had the lowest number of adults. Also in this assay, the variety CAL-JN3 presented the lowest number of eggs, while the variety Ergon presented the highest number of eggs. In the no-choice test, the varieties Chef-falat and CAL-JN3 remained resistant. Consequently, for these two varieties non-preference is the oviposition resistance mechanism. The egg-adult cycle varied from 26.02 days (Ergon) to 26.66 days (CAL-JN3). The total mortality varied from 20.52 (Ergon) to 33.97 (CAL-JN3). Considering all the characteristics, the variety CAL-JN3 was the most resistant to B. tabaci among all the tomato varieties studied, while variety Ergon was susceptible.