The whitefly Bemisia argentifolii Bellows & Perring, 1994 has been causing damage in several economically important crops in Brazil. The purpose of this research was to determine the biotic potential of the insect in zucchini, dry bean, cassava, corn, poinsettia, cabbage and tomato. The experiments were carried out at the Experimental Station of Embrapa Hortaliças, located in Brasilia, in BOD chamber (28°C ± 2°C) and greenhouse (25°C ± 8°C), with a whitefly population continuously reared on poinsettia plants since 1995. Cabbage and dry bean were the host plants with shorter pre-imaginal periods, 20.5 and 21.9 days respectively. The highest mortality in this periods was observed in cassava (97.9%) and corn (94.2%). Sexual ratio (female:male) favored females. The insect presented a small range for the intrinsic rate of increase (r m), 0.18 for dry bean and 0.13 for cabbage, reflecting the similar adaptability to both hosts. Lower intrinsic rates of increase were observed in corn and cassava, with high female mortality (> 90%), suggesting that these two species were less suitable hosts for this whitefly population.
Bemisia tabaci B biotype; biology; life table; zucchini; dry bean; cassava; corn; poinsettia; cabbage; tomato
