Whiteflies are common pest insects found on cotton, tomato, poinsettia, and many other plants. Nymphs are translucent and mostly sessile, feeding on their host plant's phloem (sap) from the undersides of leaves. They undergo incomplete metamorphosis into winged adults. Because whitefly nymphs cannot escape predation by moving, you hypothesize that their translucent bodies make them hard to spot by predators. How could you directly test this hypothesis?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To directly test the hypothesis that the translucent bodies of whitefly nymphs make them hard to spot by predators, we need to compare rates of predation on whitefly nymphs that are and are not coated with a nontoxic dye. This will allow us to determine if the difference in visibility is what leads to differences in predation rates. Choices A and D do not directly test the hypothesis, and choice C is comparing two different life stages of the same species, which is not relevant to the hypothesis being tested.

Whiteflies Are Common Pest Insects Found on Cotton, Tomato, Poinsettia