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AGRICULTURAE CONSPECTUS SCIENTIFICUS
Volume 65, No 1, 2000 (51-59)
REVIEW
Whitefly Pest Species (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) on Citrus Trees
Katja ŽANIĆ
Sonja KAČIĆ
Miro KATALINIĆ
SUMMARY
Today, the Citrus whitefly, Dialeurodes citri (Ashmead), is a very important
pest on all Citrus species throughout the citrus growing areas in Croatia.
It causes direct damage by sucking the plant juice from the leaves. Furthermore,
immatures excrete honeydew that stimulates sooy mold. The presence of
sooty mold on contaminated leaves interferes with the photosynthesis of
plants. Citrus fruits coated by sooty mold lose its market value. Because
Dialeurodes citri is poorly known in Croatia, this paper presents review
of it's morphology, biology, ecology, distribution and control measures
applied in the world. Two other serious citrus pest from the family Aleyrodidae,
Aleurothrixus floccosus (Maskell) and Parabemisia myricae (Kuwana), that
are domesticated in nearly all countries of Mediterranean Basin are not
recorded in Croatia yet. There is a possibility that these pests could
be introduced in Croatia, especially by importing of host plant seedlings.
For their proper identification, their morphological and biological differences
from Dialeurodes citri are given.
KEY WORDS
Citrus, whiteflies
Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation
Put Duilova 11, 21000 Split, Croatia
Received: June 10, 1999
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