Abstract
Electrostatic fields are abundant in the natural environment. We tested the idea that electrostatic attraction forces between tiny whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) and the substrate could be substantial to the point of limiting their take-off. These insects are characterized by a very small body mass and powerful take-offs that are executed by jumping into the air with the wings closed. Wing opening and transition to active flight occur after the jump distanced the insect several body lengths away from the substrate. Using high-speed cameras, we captured the take-off behavior inside a uniform electrostatic field apparatus and used dead insects to calculate the electric charge that these tiny insects can carry. We show that electrostatic forces stimulate the opening of the insect's wings and can attract the whole insect toward the opposite charge. We also found that whiteflies can carry and hold an electrical charge of up to 3.5 pC. With such a charge the electrostatic field required to impede take-off is much stronger than those typically found in the natural environment. Nevertheless, our results demonstrate that artificial electrostatic fields can be effectively used to suppress flight of whiteflies, thus providing options for pest control applications in greenhouses.
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Abbreviations
- ES:
-
Electrostatic
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Acknowledgements
We thank Revital Rotem for rearing the insects used for the study, Meital Tzandok Lapidot for the graphics, Yulia-Peleg Kushnarev for taking the whitefly picture in Fig. 1, Naomi Paz for English editing, the staff of the I Meier Segals Garden for Zoological Research for logistical support, two anonymous reviewers for comments that helped to improve this manuscript, and DFG Grant no. 905/18-1 AOBJ:650593 (to GR) for financial support. The experiments complied with the national and institutional guidelines for animal care and experiments with animals.
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Supplementary movie 1- a high speed movie (1,000 fps) showing dead whiteflies levitating and moving back and forth between the lower (positive) and upper (negative) plates in the uniform ES field (ES strength 259kV/m) (WMV 2950 kb)
Supplementary movie 2- a high speed movie (3,000 fps) showing voluntary takeoff of a whiteflies with the ES field (ES strength = 50kV/m) turned off (WMV 340 kb)
Supplementary movie 3- a high speed movie (3,000 fps) showing a live whitefly being pulled upwards when the ES field was turned on (ES strength = 50kV/m). Note the elevation of the wings prior to detachment form the substrate (WMV 2098 kb)
359_2020_1439_MOESM4_ESM.docx
Supplementary file 4- a table summarizing observations on the takeoff of live insects in the presence and absence of an ES field (DOCX 13 kb)
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Lapidot, O., Bechar, A., Ronen, B. et al. Can electrostatic fields limit the take-off of tiny whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci)?. J Comp Physiol A 206, 809–817 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-020-01439-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-020-01439-1