Prospects for management of whitefly using plant semiochemicals, compared with related pests

Abstract

Whitefly (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Aleyrodidae) pests, including the tobacco whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, and the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, are important economically in agriculture. Whiteflies are controlled mainly by synthetic insecticides but resistance to these is evolving rapidly. A semiochemical‐based management strategy could provide an alternative to the use of insecticides, by exploiting natural volatile signalling processes to manipulate insect behaviour. Whitefly behaviour is affected by differences in plant odour blends. Selected compounds have been suggested as putative semiochemicals, but in only a few studies have potential volatiles been characterized by electrophysiology or olfactometry. Application of antennal preparation methods from closely related families, the aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and psyllids (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), may help to facilitate whitefly electroantennography. Behavioural bioassays are essential to identify the repellent or attractant effect of each semiochemical. The relevance of semiochemicals in whitefly management needs to be evaluated in the respective cultivation system. Although the value of semiochemicals against whiteflies has not been demonstrated in the field, there is an emerging range of possible field applications and some promising prospects. Overall, the olfactory system of whiteflies needs to be elucidated in more detail. © 2018 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Plants Pre-Infested With Viruliferous MED/Q Cryptic Species Promotes Subsequent Bemisia tabaci Infestation

“…Plant volatiles play important roles in push-pull technology which combines repellents and attractants in the same cropping system ( Schlaeger et al, 2018 ). According to our results, whiteflies were deterred from non-viruliferous MED/Q-infested plants and lured to plants infested with viruliferous MED/Q at the same time.…”

“…Within plant-virus-insect tritrophic interactions, both insects and plants emit and receive chemical cues that modulate their interactions ( Howe and Jander, 2008 ). Feeding behavior of whiteflies is affected by plant odors, and to exploit natural volatile signaling processes is a new strategy to manipulate whitefly behavior ( Schlaeger et al, 2018 ). Besides, odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and CSPs of whiteflies can be effective targets for pest control as they may be involved in mating choice and host location of B. tabaci ( Wang et al, 2017 ).…”

Volatile Organic Compounds as Insect Repellents and Plant Elicitors: an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Strategy for Glasshouse Whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum)

“…Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are natural products of almost all plant taxa (Vivaldo et al 2017 ) and offer an extremely versatile option for incorporation into IPM systems. VOCs are considered environmentally benign alternatives to insecticides and have a proven action against some of our most important insect pests, including whiteflies (Schlaeger et al 2018 ). The current study seeks to explore the use of VOCs in the form of an IPM system to control whiteflies on glasshouse grown tomatoes.…”

Characterizing potential repelling volatiles for “push-pull” strategy against stem borer: a case study in Chilo auricilius

“…By identifying the relevant volatiles, our results could set ground-work for further investigations on the transferring mechanism and provide valuable information for “push” odor. In this study, an expedient approach to identify semiochemicals is to compare the volatile collections from host plants at different physiological conditions [35] by using various techniques, such as solvent extraction [36], solid phase microextraction [37] or headspace collection [38], and among them, the headspace collection is preferred as it could reflect the actual releasing situation and quantities of naturally occurring compounds and it does not cause any mechanical wound on plant tissue [38]. By using different methods, the results might have significant variations in both types and concentrations of these identified volatile compounds [39].…”