Bionomics of whitefly on soybean cultivars under laboratory conditions

Biology of Bemisia tabaci was carried out on eight soybean cultivars, in controlled laboratory conditions (25± 2 0C, 70±10% RH, 13 photophase). Plants at the trifoliate stage were placed in plastic cages and a pair of whitefly/cage was released for 72 hrs. The development was observed until adult emergence. Adult emergence percentage was highest on cultivar JS 335 (96.30%) followed by RVS- 2001-4, JS 97-52, JS 20-69, JS 20-98, NRC 86, JS 20-29 and RVS- 24 (95.83%, 94.44%, 91.67%, 86.67%, 75.56%, 75.00% and 63.89%) while the total developmental period from egg to adult on the soybean cultivars varied and it was lowest (16.59 days) on JS-335, followed by JS-97-52 (17.94 days), RVS- 2001-4 (18.76 days), JS 20-69 (21.83 days), JS 20-98 (23.14 days), RVS- 24 (23.18 days), JS 20-29 (23.36 days) and highest (23.99 days) on NRC 86, respectively.