Abstract

Abstract Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is the leading vegetable grown and consumed in the Philippines, and the eggplant leafhopper is one of its most important insect pests. Nine local populations of leafhopper infesting eggplants were collected from major eggplant growing areas in Luzon Island to determine if these populations are constituted singly or by different species and to assess the level of variability among them. Morphological analysis of the adult male abdominal and genital traits and partial mitochondrial COI gene sequence identified the eggplant leafhopper populations in Luzon Island as belonging to Amrasca (=Sundapteryx) biguttula (Ishida) (Hemiptera:Cicadelliae). Observed male specimens exhibited modifications in the pregenital abdominal tergites VII and VIII that were previously reported to not be found in other Amrasca species. Principal Component Analysis of four morphometric genital traits revealed high similarity among the leafhopper populations regardless of eggplant production areas. Partial COI sequence analysis idenfitied 11 sequence variants (haplotypes), with one predominant haplotype. Overall, the leafhopper populations from Luzon Island exhibited moderate haplotype diversity and low nucleotide diversity, indicating low genetic diversity. Topologies from a maximum likelihood tree indicate all eleven haplotypes cluster in a single clade with other A. biguttula infesting cotton and potato in India, but the Philippine population forms a separate subgroup although with weak bootstrap support. Further analysis with the Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent (GMYC) method classified the different haplotypes into a single GMYC entity.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call