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Relative abundance of sweetpotato whitefly in orange-fleshed sweetpotato cultivars at Umudike, south-east Nigeria
Abstract
Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the relative abundance of sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) on selected orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) cultivars namely: NRSP/05/022, CIP440293, Centennial, CIP199034.1, CIP199004.2, Shaba, Ex-Oyinga, SPK004 and one white fleshed (TIS87/0087) as a check at National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike during the 2010 and 2011 cropping seasons. The experiments were laid out in a Randomised Complete Block Design replicated three times. Sampling for adult B. tabaci was done in the early hours of the morning (0700-0900h) starting five weeks after planting (WAP) and operated at weekly intervals from three inner plants of the middle row of each plot for a period of three months. The study revealed that selected OFSP cultivars tested were colonised by B. tabaci. The preponderance of B. tabaci on OFSP cultivars: NRSP/05/022, CIP440293 and Centennial gave mean values of 15.33, 12.83 and 10.47, respectively; which is an indication of their susceptibility to the sweetpotato chlorotic stunt virus infection, a precursor of sweetpotato virus disease.
Key words: Bemisia tabaci, infestation, orange-fleshed sweetpotato, sampling
