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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Aleurodidae
White-flies.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Phytophagous. Tiny; (1.5–)2.5(–3) mm long; represented by ‘normal’ insects only; fliers. Head non-linear. Rostrum ostensibly originating between the front legs; not separated from the prosternum by a gula. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 7 segmented; non-aristate. Fore-wings well developed; in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; more or less uniform in texture; without costal fracture and cuneus; without a clavus; without conspicuously raised, reticulate venation. Tarsi 2 segmented; two-clawed (with a pad-like empodium or spine between them).
Insects covered with white powdery secretion; wings opaque, clouded or mottled with spots or bands; fore- and hind-wings of similar size and texture..
Taxonomy. Suborder Homoptera. Sternorrhyncha. Aleyrodoidea.
British representation. 18 species in Britain; genera 10. Aleurochiton, Aleuroplatus, Aleurotrachelus, Aleyrodes, Asterochiton, Dialeurodes, Pealius, Siphoninus, Tetralicia, Trialeurodes.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera. Version: 27th July 2019. delta-intkey.com’.