author(s)
Sachin US, Venkateshalu B, Fakrudin B, Kotikal YK, Raghavendra K Mesta, Hadimani HP and Raghavendra S

abstract
Being an polyphagous pest of many agricultural and horticultural crops, whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) place an important role as a vector for transmission of more than 111 plant viruses which affects the crop development. B. tabaci is having 36 morphologically indistinguishable genetic groups. In the present study detailed survey was undertaken to collect B. tabaci puparia samples from eleven districts of Karnataka which were distributed in seven agro climatic zones during the year 2016-17. The morphometrics of B. tabaci puparia was recorded for 12 different characters and has recorded significantly higher values for 9 out of 12 characters in Dharwad population. The combined cluster analysis of B. tabaci puparia revealed the existence of two major clusters-Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 on which populations from different locations were distributed. The principal component analysis (PCA) based on morphometrics of puparia disseminate that, the first three principal components (PCs) account for 98.417 per cent of total variation. The morphometrics reveal that there are distinct variations which could be explored for morphological delineation of genetic groups/ putative species of B. tabaci.