Evaluation of the attractive effect of coloured sticky traps for Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Quaintance) and its monitoring method in tea garden in China

<em>Aleurocanthus spiniferus</em> (Quaintance), namely tea spiny whitefly (TSW), belongs to the family Aleyrodidae in the order Homoptera, widespread in tea trees and fruit trees in many countries or regions. In this study, the preference of TSW for different colours was evaluated in tea gardens. Yellow was the colour most preferred by TSW, followed by pink, red, white and other colours. The controlling technologies about the number of sticky traps in a certain area of tea garden and the height of sticky traps above tea canopy were also evaluated, the results indicated that the attractive effect of 20 traps/667 m² of trials area and the height of 10 cm above tea canopy were significantly higher than others treatments. In addition, more TSW was caught at 11:00-15:00, followed by 7:00-11:00, and 15:00-19:00 in a daytime; higher activity level of male adults was at 7:00-11:00 and 11:00-15:00 in day time (95.13% and 94.97% of caught TSW), indicating a higher activity level for male adult