title: Roles of mating behavioural interactions and life history traits in the competition between alien and indigenous whiteflies.
abstract: Interference competition between closely related alien and indigenous species often influences the outcome of biological invasions. The whitefly Bemisia tabaci species complex contains ≥28 putative species and two of them, Mediterranean (MED, formally referred to as the 'Q biotype') and Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1, formally referred to as the 'B biotype'), have recently spread to much of the world. In many invaded regions, these species have displaced closely related indigenous whitefly species. In this study, we integrated laboratory population experiments, behavioural observations and simulation modelling to investigate the capacity of MED to displace Asia II 1 (AII1, formally referred to as the 'ZHJ2 biotype'), an indigenous whitefly widely distributed in Asia. Our results show that intensive mating interactions occur between MED and AII1, leading to reduced fecundity and progeny female ratio in AII1, as well as an increase in progeny female ratio in MED. In turn, our population cage experiments demonstrated that MED has the capacity to displace AII1 in a few generations. Using simulation models, we then show that both asymmetric mating interactions and differences in life history traits between the two species contribute substantially to the process of displacement. These findings would help explain the displacement of AII1 by MED in the field and, together with earlier studies on mating interactions between other species of the B. tabaci complex, indicate the widespread significance of asymmetric mating interactions in whitefly species exclusions.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory of Agricultural Entomology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Washington State University, 166 FSHN Building, PO Box 646382, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Crowder
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory of Agricultural Entomology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: S-S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000235:genetics*; D058865:Introduced Species / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D011157:Population Dynamics; D060047:Reproductive Isolation; D012744:Sex Ratio; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*