Today there was an interesting discussion about white fly and phyllanthus plant.
Lets first start with phyllanthus plant which we all see on road side during rainy season.
Some of the cubists have been growing these phyllanthus plant for studying it’s sleep wake cycle.
But along with that they have got some intresting findings in this small cute plant like…
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Caterpillar on phyllanthus plant!!
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It’s different sleep wake time!!
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Whiteflies on phyllanthus plant!!
Iccha is the one who’s keen observation has brought this intresting and evolutionary topic in the context…
She observed some Whiteflies on her phyllanthus plant in her home lab.
So the question is…
What exactly is this white fly?
What is it’s relationship with phyllanthus??
What is its life cycle??
Is it similar to the life cycle of moth/Caterpillar??
Now, i also got a Caterpillar on my phyllanthus plant which was very surprising to me as i didn’t knew that phyllanthus can also be a host plant for moth/butterfly’s:thinking:
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Then i tried to culture my Caterpillar in a plastic container which then grew into a moth…
So we connected the lifecycle of my moth with lifecycle of iccha’s Whiteflies
And we got to know that whiteflies also first lays eggs, from the egg Caterpillar arises, then it shows 4 larval stages by sticking to the Phloem of the plant and sucking it’s nutrients and then it forms pupa and then becomes a fly🥳
Inspired by iccha all other cubists who had phyllanthus plant tried to observe whether there is this Whitefly infection in their plant also!!
Interestingly @Theertha and @Lakshmy also observed these Whiteflies in there phyllanthus plant…
Not only @Theertha and @Lakshmy but @Arunan sir and myself has also observed these infections but on different plants…
These are the photos from @Lakshmy’s home lab!
This is what @Arunan sir found on tomato plant!
These are the Whiteflies which @Theertha got in her home lab.
And these are the photos of Whiteflies i got!