Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Insect Genetics and Biochemistry Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #118075
Title: A TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL LOCKE: WAX PORES AND WAXY PARTICLES OF BEMISIA ARGENTIFOLII AND SEMIDALIS FLINTI

Author
item Nelson, Dennis
item FREEMAN, THOMAS - NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIV
item Buckner, James

Submitted to: Abstracts 2000 Annual Meeting of Entomological Society Of America
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/12/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia argentifolii, and its predator, a dustywing, Semidalis flinti, cover themselves with the waxy particles which cover all parts of the insect except the eyes. Whitefly adults produce strands of a waxy material from abdominal wax plates, composed completely of many individual wax pores. As the waxy strands are extruded, they curl, and are then periodically broken off by the tibia forming semicircular waxy particles about 1 micrometer in diameter. These particles are a mixture of long-chain aldehydes and alcohols of 30 to 34 carbons depending on the whitefly species. Dustywings, a whitefly predator, have numerous individual rosette- shaped wax pores, located around their entire body, but largely on the abdomen. Each pore produces two waxy ribbons with fluted edges. Each waxy ribbon curls back on itself to form circle approximately one micrometer in diameter. These circular portion of the waxy ribbon breaks free to form the circular waxy particles. These particles consisted largely of a 24-carbon fatty acid, tetracosanoic acid, some methyl- branched hydrocarbons, other fatty acids, and fatty alcohols.