Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Quaintance, 1903) (orange spiny whitefly, OSW) (Hemiptera, Aleyrodidae) invaded South of Italy

Abstract

Inspection started from the Lecce city center, namely from the main public park or garden, then extended to orchards and boundaries searching for infested plants. The specimens collected mainly came from young fully mature leaves from the basal part of the infested trees. On infested trees puparia and eggs can be easily collected and black adults can be spotted at the top twigs. Otherwise A. spiniferus is usually on the underside of the leaves. Puparia were slidemounted by quick-mounts method (Martin et al., 2000) or in Canada balsam following the suggestions of Pizza and Porcelli (1993) and Martin (1999). The black puparia were bleached with a cold mixture of 30-volume ammonia and 20-volume hydrogen peroxide (Martin, 1999; Anonymous, 2004). Mounted specimens were identified following Silvestri (1928), Bink-Moenen (1983), Kanmiya et al. (2011), Martin (1987 and 1999). The laboratory notes and the observations were taken by stereomicroscope, light compound microscope and Hitachi TM3000 low pressure SEM. By the end of 2009 OSW infested 68 of the 97 municipalities of Lecce district but the intensity of its infestation varied. In 2010 the pest infested 88 municipalities, except Diso, Guagnano, Melendugno, Novoli, Salice Salentino, Squinzano, Trepuzzi, Uggiano la Chiesa and Veglie. In 2011 OSW started to spread into the villages of the Adriatic coast.Apparently Melendugno and Diso were not infested by it. In 2011 A. spiniferus was found on a Citrus limon in a private garden from San Pancrazio Salentino, a village in the Brindisi district.