Relative polyphagy of “Mediterranean” cryptic Bemisia tabaci whitefly species and global pest status implications

Abstract

The Bemisia tabaci whitefly was previously considered a single, highly polyphagous species, but is now accepted as a group of cryptic biological species. We investigated the host plant relations of two sister species, the “Mediterranean” (MED) composed of the Q1 and Q2 mitochondrial groups and the “ASL” species (formerly considered a MED group), to discover whether polyphagy was related to the global pest status. We compared their performance by measuring the oviposition rate, survival, fecundity and proportion of female offspring on 13 host plants from nine families. In addition, oviposition preference was compared among leaves of different ages. Significant (P < 0.05) differences were found between populations in all parameters, particularly in adult survival and fecundity. Females preferred strongly to oviposit on the oldest true leaf on tobacco and tomato and on young leaves of sweet potato and pepper. The greatest differences in fecundity occurred on bean, okra, squash, pepper and tobacco. Hosts favourable for all four populations were cotton and sweet potato; no offspring were produced on cassava, chard or tomato. Host ranges of Q1 populations from Europe and sub-Saharan Africa differed despite their close genetic relatedness at the mitogenome level. Discrepancies between the parental and offspring fitness were observed. Our findings show that (1) the species have differing but overlapping host plant ranges and (2) the Q1 is the most polyphagous and can utilise tobacco, which predisposes it to evolving resistance to neonicotinoids. Our findings contribute to the understanding of ecology of this pest species complex and aid the development of efficient pest control strategies.