Greenhouse evaluation of a new sticky trap to attract Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) with behavioral studies on their visual response

Sticky trap with yellow circle in black background was originally developed to attract anthophilous thrips and also found to attract whiteflies as well. We evaluated the potential of the new sticky trap to capture Bemisia tabaci Gennadius (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) by comparing with ordinary rectangular yellow sticky trap in oriental melon greenhouse. The new sticky trap (24 × 39 cm) contains either two large yellow circles (diameter 18 cm) or two small yellow circles (diameter 13 cm) in black background and is both-sided. The trap with small circles captured 1.8 times more B. tabaci per unit area than the rectangular yellow sticky trap. In the examination of on-site flight activity of B. tabaci, trap with large circles attract 70% of the B. tabaci that took off from the plant canopy followed by 49% in small yellow circles and 32% in rectangular with yellow sticky trap. In behavioral studies, B. tabaci shows significant preference on traps shapes and background. Circular shape trap attracted 1.3 times more B. tabaci than square shape. And yellow sticky card with black background was 1.9 times more attractive than sticky card without background. In conclusion, yellow sticky trap with black background attracts more B. tabaci per unit area than rectangular yellow sticky trap in attracting the B. tabaci, and could be a good addition to management or monitoring programs of B. tabaci. Key words: visual stimulus, color tropism, whitefly, thrips, backgounded trap