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Sticker of Silverleaf whitefly
Bug card No. 1221 of 1,500

Silverleaf whitefly

Bemisia tabaci
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The silverleaf whitefly is a teeny tiny insect with a pale yellow body and pure white wings. It is less than a millimetre long. It sits under leaves and folds its wings over its back like a little tent.

Lives in
First probably from India, now in warm places all over the world, on farm crops and in greenhouses
Length
0.9 mm (0.04 in)
up to
Top speed
about 0.01 km/h (0.01 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It is a big pest for farmers.
What does it eat?
It stabs into leaves with its tiny mouth and sucks the plant juice. It loves tomatoes, cotton, sweet potatoes and many other crops.
For real!Photo of Silverleaf whitefly
Picture by unknown author. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Silverleaf whitefly about 0.9 mm long (0.04 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
7 of them in a row are as long as one grain of riceneeds 6 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Silverleaf whitefly compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its wings look white because they are covered in a thin layer of wax.

2

A mother lays 50 to 400 tiny eggs on the underside of leaves.

3

A baby walks around only at the start. Then it sticks to one spot on the leaf and stays there for 40 to 50 days.

4

Scientists found that what looks like one kind is really at least 40 kinds that look exactly the same.

5

Cold weather kills both the grown-ups and the babies.

you asked

Most asked questions about Silverleaf whitefly

?What are the tiny white flies under my plant leaves?

They may be whiteflies. They suck plant juice and are a common pest of tomatoes and greenhouse plants.

?How big is a silverleaf whitefly?

Less than a millimetre long, even smaller than a fruit fly.

?Is the silverleaf whitefly harmful?

Not to people, but it damages crops. In Texas and California it caused over 100 million dollars of damage.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Bemisia tabaci
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Aleyrodidae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Aleyrodidae
Lives on
Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Sweet potato whitefly, Cotton whitefly

Where the facts come from

  1. Silverleaf whitefly (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by unknown author. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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