Abstract
Simple SummaryWhiteflies are pests and vectors of plant viruses which cause devastating yield losses globally to numerous food, cash and ornamental crops. The main whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) populations that infest cassava, a food security crop for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), can reach highly abundant populations and are SSA1 and SSA2. SSA1 has been divided into separate species/subgroups (SG1/SG2 and SG3) and these can differ in their abundance and prevalence in the field in east Africa. In this study, biological traits of 12 whitefly populations collected from Uganda and Tanzania were investigated to determine whether their genotypes alone are significant drivers of the observed field abundance. Development of B. tabaci populations (SSA1 subgroups SG1/SG2 and SSA2) under insectary conditions were similar, hence not supporting previous suggestions of SSA1-SG1 being predominant in eastern Africa, due to distinct biological traits. SSA1-SG3 development time was the shortest, whereas SSA1-SG2 generated the greatest number of emerged adults. These results assist understanding of factors contributing to the outbreaking phenomenon of whitefly populations that drive cassava-virus pandemics in eastern Africa.In East Africa, the prevalent Bemisia tabaci whiteflies on the food security crop cassava are classified as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) species. Economically damaging cassava whitefly populations were associated with the SSA2 species in the 1990s, but more recently, it has been to SSA1 species. To investigate whether biological traits (number of first instar nymphs, emerged adults, proportion of females in progeny and development time) of the cassava whitefly species are significant drivers of the observed field abundance, our study determined the development of SSA1 sub-group (SG) 1 (5 populations), SG2 (5 populations), SG3 (1 population) and SSA2 (1 population) on cassava and eggplant under laboratory conditions. SSA1-(SG1-SG2) and SSA2 populations’ development traits were similar. Regardless of the host plant, SSA1-SG2 populations had the highest number of first instar nymphs (60.6 ± 3.4) and emerged adults (50.9 ± 3.6), followed by SSA1-SG1 (55.5 ± 3.2 and 44.6 ± 3.3), SSA2 (45.8 ± 5.7 and 32.6 ± 5.1) and the lowest were SSA1-SG3 (34.2 ± 6.1 and 32.0 ± 7.1) populations. SSA1-SG3 population had the shortest egg–adult emergence development time (26.7 days), followed by SSA1-SG1 (29.1 days), SSA1-SG2 (29.6 days) and SSA2 (32.2 days). Regardless of the whitefly population, development time was significantly shorter on eggplant (25.1 ± 0.9 days) than cassava (34.6 ± 1.0 days). These results support that SSA1-(SG1-SG2) and SSA2 B. tabaci can become highly abundant on cassava, with their species classification alone not correlating with observed abundance and prevalence.
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