TAHSEEN RAZA HASHMI , DEBJANI DEY AND RAM PRASAD
Abstract
Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is known to feed on nearly 900 host plants causing significant crop damage worldwide. Research was led to record the dispersal frequency of seven known endosymbionts namely Portiera, Rickettsia, Wolbachia, Cardinium, Fritschea, Hamiltonella and Arsenophonus among the field populations of B. tabaci collected from two medicinally important host plants, viz., Subabool (Leucaena leucocephala) and China rose (Hibiscus rosasinensis). Individuals collected from each host were scanned for their endosymbiont diversity. The primary endosymbiont, Portiera aleyrodidarum was present in all the samples of B. tabaci but dispersal of secondary endosymbionts varied. This unbalanced distribution of secondary endosymbionts fortifies the hypothesis that each endosymbiotic bacterium not only has a role in the existence but may also have a role in the polyphagus nature of B. tabaci.