Preferences of Bemisia tabaci Gennadius (Homoptera : Aleyrodidae) towards host plants

摘要

Bemisia tabaci is one of the main pests in vegetable crops, which is a poliphagus and has more than 600 species of host plant. This study purposed to determine B. tabaci preference on some host plants, which were tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beanstalk, red beans, soya, Ageratum, knob grass and prickly amaranth. Research carried in the screen house, Department of Plant Pests and Diseases, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Padjadjaran, from August 2011 to January 2012. The experiments used randomizedblock design with nine treatments and three replications. Observation variables were population density of B. tabaci nymphs and imago and trichome form of host plant that was used in the experiment. The results showed the highest population density of B. tabaci nymphs which were 1318.6 nymphs at eggplant and 588.33 nymphs at red beans, meanwhile no nymph was found at paper plants. Population density observations of B. tabaci imago on eggplant and red beans for each were 76.33 and 114.33 imago. On trichome observation, visually B. tabaci preferred leaves with a high density trichome.