Center for Higher Learning and Research in Zoology, Department of Zoology, Hislop College, Nagpur-440001
Online published on 3 November, 2015.
The whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a polyphagous pest of agricultural and horticultural crops and plays an important role as a vector for more than 111 plant viruses. It has been concluded that it is a species complex consisting of 36 morphologically indistinguishable genetic groups or putative species. In the present study multivariate statistical analyses reveal that out of the 62 characters evaluated for morphometrics, 30 characters vary significantly (P<0.05) which reinforce the complexity of this species. Principal component analyses (PCA) revealed that the first six principal components (PCs) account for 73.6% of total variation and in canonical discriminant analyses (CDA) overlapped clustering was observed in all the six populations analyzed except that of Dhamnod population. Overall 91.11% of the classifications were correctly attributable by CDA and confirm the distinctiveness of populations. For this distinction maximum contributions from the measurements of length of operculum, breadth of vasiform orifice, distance of transverse moulting suture, breadth of operculum, and length of antennae, lingula and puparia. The morphometrics reveal that there are distinct variations which could be explored for morphological delineation of genetic groups/putative species of B. tabaci supplementing their molecular variations.
Bemisia tabaci, puparia, morphometrics, PCA, CDA
