Berlinger, M.J., Entomology Laboratory, ARO, Gilat Regional Experiment Station, Mobile Post Negev 85-280, Israel
Lehmann-Sigura, N., Entomology Laboratory, ARO, Gilat Regional Experiment Station, Mobile Post Negev 85-280, Israel
Taylor, R.A.J., Entomology Department, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster, OH 44 691, United States

The ability of the sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci Gennad., to survive a range of environmental conditions was investigated in the laboratory. The range of temperature and humidity investigated corresponds to the normal climatic range during B. tabaci's summer migration in Israel. Adult whiteflies confined to small test cages were exposed to combinations of temperature (25, 30, 35, and 41 °C) and relative humidity (20, 50, 80, and 100%) for periods of 2,4, or 6 h. A logistic regression model describing the four-dimensional surface defining percent survival as a function of time, temperature, and humidity was developed. Using stepwise regression to exclude non-significant terms, the linear predictor included temperature, and the products of temperature and time, and humidity and time. The model accounted for 75% of the variance. A reparameterization of the fitted regression model suggests that survival potential is conditioned by temperature conditions prevailing during the previous 10 h. Whitefly survival after 2 h exposure ranged from ≃90% survival at 25 °C and 100% RH, to <2% survival at 41 °C and 20% r.h.. No whiteflies survived more than 2 h exposure at these latter extremes of temperature and humidity. Survival rates decreased slightly after experimental whiteflies were kept in a cage with food a further 20 h at 25 ± 2 °C, 55 ± 5% r.h. Investigations of the effects of hunger and virus infection, showed that both increased mortality.