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Abstract
The whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidiae), is a cryptic species complex comprising a minimum of 24 cryptic species. Some members of this complex are important agricultural pests, causing considerable damage to vegetable as well as ornamental and horticultural crops. Asia I, one of the cryptic species of B. tabaci, is widely distributed in Asia. One hundred and sixty mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequences from eight countries have been analyzed to investigate the geographic origin and current genetic structure of this cryptic species. Sixty different haplotypes were identified, with levels of genetic distances ranging from 0.001 to 0.021. A sign of possible genetic differentiation emerges from the differential distribution of dominant haplotypes in Indonesia and India compared to China. A possible ancient separation between Asia I in India and Indonesia and secondary contact in China has been hypothesized.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the colleagues Yuan-Yuan Liu, Jin-Gang Cha, Chong-Hui Qi, Kun Yang, Hong-Xiang Li, Jian-Chun Zhao, Guang-Xi Li, Zhan Li for sample collections for the study. The authors wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.
Declaration of interest
Financial support for this study was provided by the Key Program of Joint Funds of National Natural Science Foundation of China and Yunnan Province (Grant U1136606), the Fund for Applied Basic Research of Yunnan Province (Grant 2011FB122) and the Fund for Reserve Talents of Young and Middle-aged Academic and Technical Leaders of Yunnan Province (Grant 2012HB038). The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.