Aleurodicus dispersus
| Aleurodicus dispersus | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Suborder: | Sternorrhyncha |
| Superfamily: | Aleyrodoidea |
| Family: | Aleyrodidae |
| Genus: | Aleurodicus |
| Species: | A. dispersus |
| Binomial name | |
|
Aleurodicus dispersus Russell, 1965 |
|
Aleurodicus dispersus, the spiralling whitefly, is a species of small, white sap-sucking insect, a true bug in the order Hemiptera. It originated in Central America and the Caribbean region and has spread to many of the world's tropical and subtropical regions, where it has become a major pest of agricultural crops.
Adult spiralling whitefly are small, white, moth-like insects some 1/12-1/8 inch (2–3 mm) long. When they emerge from the pupal casing, the wings are transparent, but they soon become dusted with white fragments of wax. Each of the forewings bear a characteristic pair of black spots and the eyes in this species are a dark reddish brown.
Aleurodicus dispersus is native to Central America and the Caribbean but is not regarded as a pest species in these areas. Since the middle of the 20th century it has spread to many parts of the tropics and subtropics. It was found and intercepted in the 1950s on imports into the United States by quarantine officials but later became established in Florida and in 1962 it had reached the Canary Islands. In the early 1980s it had appeared in Hawaii and other Pacific islands and had spread across tropical Asia by the middle of the decade. It had extended its range by the early 1990s to West Africa and India and to parts of the Indian Ocean. In 2009 it was still absent from the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, Hong Kong and most of Australia. It is most common at altitudes of less than 1000 feet (300 metres).
Aleurodicus dispersus is polyphagous, meaning that it is not reliant on a single host food plant but can feed on many different species of plant. Its host range includes over 100 species in 38 genera and 27 families. Cultivated crops and ornamentals affected by it include banana, coconut, citrus, avocado, breadfruit, mango, macadamia, guava, paw-paw, capsicum, lead tree, frangipani and rose.
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