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Submitted to: Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 12/7/1998 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Thewhitefliesaresomeofthemostnoxiouspestinsectsworldwide,causing damage to crops through direct feeding and through virus transmission. Despite this importance, very little research has been done on the relationships among the great diversity of whitefly species. Dialeurodes is the largest genus of whiteflies in the world, and it includes some important pests on citrus and other crops. This paper is the first to examine any group of whiteflies using the computer-aided analysis method called cladistics. It begins the much-needed process of defining natural groups that exist within the currently artificial group Dialeurodes. Placing the species of this genus into groups of their close relatives will be useful to whitefly researchers worldwide, and is only the first step in defining the genus Dialeurodes and in making species of Dialeurodes easier to identifiy. Technical Abstract: The cladistic relationships within a large sample of the world's diversity of Dialeurodes Cockerell were examined. Forty one species were analysed, including 27 species placed in Dialeurodes, one previously misclassified species, Dialeurodes fici Takahashi stat. rev., two undescribed species of Dialeurodes, three species of Rusostigma, four Kanakarajiella, and two species of Dialeuronomada, with two species of Cockerelliella used as outgroups. The analysis found 2,068 equally parsimonious trees of length 183. Several well-defined groups were present in all these trees. The important characters that define these groups are discussed, and the distinctness of these groups from the type species of the genus Dialeurodes is noted. |
