Whitefly Pest Species (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) on Citrus Trees
Katja ŽANIĆ, Sonja KAČIĆ, Miro KATALINIĆ
Pages: 51-59
Summary
Today, the Citrus whitefly, Dialeurodes citri (Ashmead), is a very important pest on all Citrus species throughout the citrus growing areas in Croatia. It causes direct damage by sucking the plant juice from the leaves. Furthermore, immatures excrete honeydew that stimulates sooy mold. The presence of sooty mold on contaminated leaves interferes with the photosynthesis of plants. Citrus fruits coated by sooty mold lose its market value. Because Dialeurodes citri is poorly known in Croatia, this paper presents review of it's morphology, biology, ecology, distribution and control measures applied in the world. Two other serious citrus pest from the family Aleyrodidae, Aleurothrixus floccosus (Maskell) and Parabemisia myricae (Kuwana), that are domesticated in nearly all countries of Mediterranean Basin are not recorded in Croatia yet. There is a possibility that these pests could be introduced in Croatia, especially by importing of host plant seedlings. For their proper identification, their morphological and biological differences from Dialeurodes citri are given.
Keywords
Citrus; whiteflies
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