Whitefly, Lecanoideus floccissimus

February 2000. A new pest whitefly pest could be making a move: Lecanoideus floccissimus. This whitefly is related to spiralling whitefly and attacks a range of plants, but especially palms, Strelitzia spp., banana and Ficus spp. This whitefly produces similar masses of waxy flocculence as does spiralling whitefly and, also like spiralling whitefly, originally came from Central and Northern South America. It has been in the Canary Islands since 1965, but in the last couple of years has abruptly increased in numbers to become a major problem on bananas. It is controlled better by Encarsia guadeloupae than by E nr haitiensis which appears to have little impact on the whitefly.

There is not much in the literature that deals with this insect, but normal quarantine procedures shoud detect and eliminate its risk.