Bemisia tabaci
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia tabaci, also informally referred to as the sweet potato whitefly and cotton whitefly) is one of several species of whitefly that are currently important agricultural pests. A review in 2011 concluded that the silverleaf whitefly is actually a species complex containing at least 40 morphologically indistinguishable species.
The silverleaf whitefly thrives worldwide in tropical, subtropical, and less predominately in temperate habitats. Cold temperatures kill both the adults and the nymphs of the species. The silverleaf whitefly can be confused with other insects such as the common fruitfly, but with close inspection, the whitefly is slightly smaller and has a distinct wing color that helps to differentiate it from other insects.
While the silverleaf whitefly had been known in the United States since 1896, in the mid-1980s an aggressive strain appeared in poinsettia crops in Florida. For convenience that strain was referred to as strain B (biotype B), to distinguish it from the milder infestation of the earlier known strain A. Less than a year after its identification, strain B was found to have moved to tomatoes, and other fruit and vegetable crops. Within five years, the silverleaf whitefly had caused over $100 million in damage to agriculture in Texas and in California. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaohsiung | 🇹🇼 Taiwan |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Silverleaf Whitefly sighting in Kaohsiung on a given day, based on 60 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 24th most-seen of the 218 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and April
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Silverleaf Whitefly in Kaohsiung on a given day, against under 5% in July, the lowest month. Those are among Kaohsiung's driest months, with about 40 mm of rain a month against 440 mm in August.
Only Kaohsiung, in our data
Kaohsiung is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Silverleaf Whitefly sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Hemiptera
The closest relatives of the Silverleaf Whitefly that you can see in Kaohsiung (order Hemiptera, True Bugs, Hoppers, Aphids, and allies) are Yellow-Spotted Stink Bug (about 20%), Asian Citrus Psyllid (about 20%) and Phylliana alba (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Silverleaf Whitefly is recorded against all the insects logged in Kaohsiung (60 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
