Since 1991, when the whitefly Bemisia argentifolii Bellows & Perring was first described in São Paulo, it dispersed rapidly to all the regions of Brazil. Although the high incidence of geminivirus is correlated with high population of this whitefly, the transmission efficiency of this insect is unknown. To determine whether the B. argentifolii is a vector of BGMV, two experiments were carried out. After an aquisition period of 24 hours on infected beans plants cv. Carioca 80, adults of the whitefly were transferred to seedlings of some cultivars, giving a period of inoculation of 24 hours. In the 1st experiment, the percentage of symptomatic plants were: 25.0% for Carioca 80, 21.0% for Moruna 80, 21.0% for Aeté, 75.0% for Preto and 26.3% for Manteiga. In the 2nd experiment, the percentage of virus transmission were: 63.6% for IAC Carioca and 60.0% for BT-2. The results showed that B. argentifolii is a vector of BGMV and apparently there are no marked differences in efficiency of transmission between this specie and Bemisia tabaci (Genn.).
Insecta; Aleyrodidae; whitefly-transmitted geminivirus
