The sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci(Genn.) and silverleaf whitefly B. argentifolii Bellows and Perring (Hom.: Aleyrodidae) are major pests of field crops, vegetables and ornamentals in Iran. Economic losses from this pest may either be caused through viral transmission, the excretion of honeydew or by direct damage to the plants. RAPD technique was employed to detect genetic diversity and dispersal of 11 Bemisia tabaci populations during 2002. The infested leaves bearing nymphs and pupae were collected from Darab, Qom, Saveh, Gonbad, Gorgan, Varamin, Garmsar, Orzoiieh (Kerman), Rafsanjan, Shooshtar, and College of Agriculture(T.M.U.) cotton fields. Nymphs and pupae were cultured in a growth chamber under 24±.2?C, 55±3% RH and 16:8 (L: D) photoperiod conditions. Five decamer primers were used in amplification reactions. All primers produced polymorphic bands. In general 71 RAPD markers were detected. Amplified DNA fragments ranged in size from 200 to 3000 bp. The results revealed that except for Rafsanjan, all other populations consisted of B. tabaci and B. argentifolii. The results indicated that RAPD marker is useful to the study of DNA polymorphism in B. tabaci .
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