Data from: Mortality Dynamics of a Polyphagous Invasive Herbivore Reveal Clues in Its Agroecosystem Success

Field-based, partial life table data for immature stages of silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia argentifolii, on 6 host plants including alfalfa, broccoli, spring and fall cantaloupe, cotton, ornamental lantana, and several species of annual weeds in Maricopa, Marana and Yuma Arizona, USA. Data were collected on a total of 73 individual cohorts (each replicated 4 times) from November 2000 to April 2003 at all three study sites. For each cohort, data were generated on approximately 400 individual insects (200 eggs and 200 first instar nymphs). Data provide the marginal, cause-specific mortality for eggs, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th instar nymphs collectively and stage-specific marginal mortality for each stage over all causes. Mortality was characterized as caused by inviability (eggs only), dislodgement, predation, parasitism (nymphs only), desiccation, and unknown. Detailed methods can be found in Naranjo and Ellsworth 2005 (Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 116(2): 93-108; https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1570-7458.2005.00297.x ; and Naranjo and Ellsworth 2017 (Journal of Visualized Experiments, 129; https://doi.org/10.3791/56150). The method takes advantage of the sessile nature of immature stages of this insect. Briefly, an observer follows individual eggs or settled first instar nymphs from natural populations on the underside of host plant leaves in the field with a hand lens and determines causes of death for each individual over time. Weather data was monitored using the University of Arizona AzMet system. Note that these life table data do not include adult mortality or reproduction. The life table data were used to generate survivorship curves for each cohort on each host plant based on a physiological time scale of accumulated degree-days above 10C from the initiation of each cohort.

• Resource Title: Mortality causes over all immature life stages.

  File Name: MortalityCause.xlsx

  Resource Description: Data of mortality causes over all immature life stages.




• Resource Title: Mortality of each immature life stage over all causes.

  File Name: MortalityStage.xlsx

  Resource Description: Data for mortality of each immature life stage over all causes.




• Resource Title: Data for pest survivorship curves on each host plant.

  File Name: SurvivalCurves.xlsx

  Resource Description: Data to generate survivorship curves for pest on each host plant.