MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF SWEET POTATO WHITEFLY Bemisia tabaci PUTATIVE SPECIES IN KARBALA PROVINCE, IRAQ AND POSSIBILITY CONTROL IT USING THE NANOPARTICLES OF MGO AND ZNO

Whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is one of the major pests of many crops worldwide. It is a cryptic species complex composed of at least 39 different indistinguishable species. However, the common species of this insect in Iraq including Karbala Province is not fully recognized. Thus, the main aim of this research was to explore the genetic characteristics of this species in Karbala province, Iraq based on the mitochondrial DNA CO1sequencing analysis as well as control it using some chemical pesticides and nanoparticles. The mtCO1 results suggest B. tabaci species complex have a high level of genetic polymorphic, and three members of B. tabaci (B, B2, and MEAM2) were identified in (Nursery threshold Husseiniya, Al-Husayniyah, and Karbala desert), respectively. The most common type was B, which is Middle East-Asia Minor1 (MEAM1) according to the global dataset of this species complex. Furthermore, the influence of the ZnO and MgO nanoparticles evaluated were similar to the pesticides examined. Thus, they are a potential alternative method can be harnessed to control the whitefly.