The effectiveness of commercial Bt-cotton in pest management, influence on arthropod diversity, natural enemies, and toxin flow in the insect fauna under field conditions were studied keeping in view the need to assess bioefficacy and biosafety of Bt-transgenic cotton. There were no significant differences in oviposition by Helicoverpa armigera on Bt-transgenic and non-transgenic cottons (9.2 v...

The impact of symbionts on their insect hosts depends on their infection density. In the current study, we investigated the effects of host plants (cucumber, cabbage, and cotton) on the relative amount of symbionts Portiera and Hamiltonella in the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) Q. The relative amounts of symbionts in 3 host plant B. tabaci Q populations with the same genetic background wer...

Theory predicts that intraguild consumers such as predators or parasitoids may displace more specialized heterospecific competitors and thereby actually increase the population densities of a shared host or prey. We tested this idea with a native primary parasitoid, Eretmocerus eremicus, and an exotic autoparasitoid Encarsia sophia, both attacking the sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Autopa...

Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) after its first epidemic in 1912 in Nigeria, has spread to different cotton growing countries including United States, Pakistan, India, and China. The disease is of viral origin-transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci, which is difficult to control because of the prevalence of multiple virulent viral strains or related species. The problem is further complica...

A new variant of cotton leafroll dwarf virus (CLRDV) (genus: Polerovirus, family: Solemoviridae) was discovered in (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fields that were reported to be infested with aphids and whiteflies southern Alabama 2017. Prior the confirmation CLRDV, speculation focused on as a potential vector then-unknown virus. Although only transmit CLRDV is aphid, Aphis gossypii (Glover), two reco...

A resistance monitoring program conducted for the polyphagous whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), in Imperial Valley, CA, USA generated a large set of LC50s for adults collected from broccoli, cantaloupe and cotton crops over a four-year period. A vial bioassay and, subsequently, a yellow-sticky card bioassay produced similar temporal profiles of relative susceptibilities to the pyrethroid in...

Whether or not chemical changes in plants in response to pests (insects and pathogens) are general or specific remains unclear. Some evidence indicates that an induced response (IR) to arthropods via the octadecanoid pathway represents a distinct mechanism from the salicylic acid-based pathway of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) to pathogens. To further test this hypothesis, young cotton seed...