International Journal of Entomology Research

Authors
Zunnu Raen Akhtar, Ahmad Ali Anjum, Zain Saeed, Aqsa Noreen, Easha, Haseeb Jan

Abstract
Transgenic cotton was found successful in terms of controlling chewing pests but it can also harm non-target sucking pests including white flies. White flies being most important sucking pest of transgenic cotton and its incidence occurred more due to less sprays and resistance development occurrence in transgenic cotton in current situation. White flies for risk assessment studies are required to be tested in three tiers. These tiers are to test them from laboratory to semi-field till last stage of field studies. In current studies, we observed ecological risk assessment of transgenic cotton against white flies by observing their population dynamics in transgenic cotton as compared to non-transgenic cotton under field conditions. White flies were sampled using random sampling method with three leaves sampled from cotton plant i.e upper leaf, middle leaf and lower leaf in transgenic cotton as compared to non-transgenic cotton. Observations were recorded on weekly basis. Results showed that white flies occurrence was more in transgenic cotton as compared to non-transgenic cotton. These results reveal that some morphological, physiological, biochemical processes might affect white flies incidence in transgenic cotton. However, a more vast study should be carried out to observe white flies risk assessment at molecular level.