Field-Evolved Resistance of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) to Carbodiimide and Neonicotinoids in Pakistan

The evolution of resistance to carbodiimide (a toxic metabolite of diafenthiuron) and four neonicotinoids imidacloprid, acetamiprid, thiamethoxam, and thiacloprid in the Pakistani populations of sweetpotato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Gennadius) was monitored from 1996 to 2015 using a leaf-dip bioassay. Diafenthiuron, imidacloprid, and acetamiprid were introduced into Pakistani agriculture in mid-1990s and heavily used since then, because B. tabaci resistance and consequently control failures to conventional insecticides such as organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroids were widespread during the 1990s. According to the current studies, resistance to carbodiimide, imidacloprid, and acetamiprid during 1996-2010 and to thiamethoxam during 1999-2007 remained very low, but then it rose sharply, and by the year 2015, the B. tabaci resistance increased to very high levels. Among neonicotinoids, thiacloprid was the latest introduction in Pakistan in 2002. There was no thiacloprid resistance in 2002 and 2003, a low tomoderate resistance during 2004-2006, and a very high resistance during 2007-2010 that even exceeded resistance to previous neonicotinoids. We may conclude that diafenthiuron and neonicotinoids remained effective against B. tabaci for 15 yr following their intensive use under field conditions, before a significant resistance, leading to their field failures, occurred in Pakistan.