Honeysuckle Whitefly (Aleyrodes lonicerae)

A few days ago in a post about the Vinegar Fly (Acletoxenus formosus) I mentioned both the adults and larvae of the fly feed on Whiteflies.

Coincidentally, The next day I noticed what appeared to be a large speck of white dust, or perhaps a shard of flower petal, land on a leaf close by me. Something about the 'controlled' landing alerted my curiosity so I whipped out the macro lens and discovered the speck was this moth-like insect, its form not visible to my naked eye.

Despite their appearance and name, Whiteflies (family:Aleyrodidae) are neither a moth nor a fly. They are soft-bodied, flight capable winged insects closely related to aphids and mealybugs and can measure as little as 1-2mms.

There are 100's of species world-wide and can be found (usually) on the underside of the leaves of a wide variety of plants and commercially grown vegetables etc. where they suck out plant juices and produce honeydew, particularly on new growth. The honeydew can turn into a sooty mould which starves the leaves of light, preventing photosynthesis.

If subjected to a large invasion of Whitefly feeding, plants can quickly weaken and if unchecked, leaves will drop, the plant's growth may be stunted and they may even die?

However, they prefer to be indoors and are more of a threat to indoor and greenhouse plants, as well as indoor crops.

The specimen in the photo above is that of the Honeysuckle Whitefly, which I've deduced both by its proximity to the host plant and by the single descriptive large shaded dot, visible on each wing.