Genetic Analysis of Bemisia (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Populations by Isoelectric Focusing Electrophoresis

Twenty-one whitefly populations in the genus Bemisia were evaluated for genetic variation at 3 allozyme loci. Nine of the 22 populations that exhibited polymorphic loci were subjected to allozyme analysis using a minimum of 10 enzymes, representing 10 to 14 distinct loci. Among those nine variants examined, calculated genetic distances ranged between 0.03 and 0.52, with three main groups emerging from the analysis. One group comprised two closely related Western Hemisphere variants of B. tabaci: type A from California, United States and a geographically proximal population from Culiacan, Mexico. A second cluster contained five collections previously identified as B. tabaci type B and Bemisia argentifolii, while a third group contained a single population from Benin, Africa. The latter two groups were grouped separately from New World populations and are thought to have a recent origin in the Eastern Hemisphere.