Effect of temperature and cropping sequence on the infestation pattern of Bemisia tabaci in potato

Abstract

In India, more than 85% of the total potato production is realised from the subtropical Indo-Gangetic plains where potato is cultivated during winter. The cotton whitefly, B. tabaci is a major pest of potato as it transmits the Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (potato) causing the Apical leaf curl disease which leads to huge yield losses. The population dynamics of cotton whitefly was studied at 12 locations across the northern plains of India from 2015–17. It was observed that the cotton whitefly appears on potato immediately after crop emergence. The whitefly adults exhibited four different patterns of population dynamics at different locations. Whiteflies remained on the potato crop as long as minimum daily temperature was above 10–12ºC after which the whiteflies either disappeared from the crops or their flight activity was considerably reduced as indicted by the yellow sticky trap catch data. The whitefly incidence was higher at locations where potato is preceded by crops preferred by whitefly such as cotton, broad beans, groundnut etc. Perusal of the data on number of eggs laid and ensuing nymphs per plant indicated that the contribution of immigrating adults to the whitefly population is much higher than that of the colonising population for major part of the crop period. Thus, in addition to temperature, cropping sequence acts as a major factor in shaping the pattern of whitefly infestation. The results will help in deciding cropping pattern and better timing of insecticidal applications for healthy seed potato production.

Change of the Density-Independent and Dependent Environmental Factors on The Population Dynamics of Bemisia tabaci and Empoasca fabae Under the Potato Agroecosystem

“…These findings are consistent with those made by (Shivanna et al, 2011), who found that the whitefly population peaked from April to May while the leafhopper population peaked in May. As in Gwalior, the whitefly population persisted in the potato crop throughout the growing season (Shah et al, 2019). The population grew gradually until it peaked in the middle of the season and then started to fall.…”

“…B. tabaci is a common pest in tropical and subtropical regions but is less prominent in temperate habitats. Currently, it has become a cosmopolitan pest, with records in every zoogeographic region of the world (CABI, 2017), It causes direct damage by feeding on leaf sap and indirect damage to potato plants, which results in a yield reduction of 40% or more (Agriculture et al, 2005;CABI, 2017;Guzmán-Barney et al, 2013), and transmits more than 200 plant viruses (Polston et al, 2014) such as Geminiviruses were transmitted to potato cultivars infested by B, tabaci (Alyokhin et al, 2022) also the cotton whitefly, B. tabaci transmits the Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus to potato plant leading to the appearance of the Apical leaf curl disease causing huge yield losses (Shah et al, 2019). Feeding by white fly adults and larvae causes chlorotic catching, premature leaf dropping and growth deformation.…”