Redescription of two live oak-infesting whiteflies in California

Abstract Crown whitefly, Aleuroplatus coronata (Quaintance 1900), and gelatinous whitefly, A. gelatinosus (Cockerell 1898) were re-described from syntype specimens and from material recently collected in southern California. The recently collected material includes all postembryonic life stages which are all described herein. The original descriptions focused on the fourth instar or “pupa” with little or no mention of other life stages. The 16S rDNA of both species was extracted from adults, amplified by PCR, and sequenced. Sequence alignment between the two species indicates a high degree of divergence as they show only an 80% degree of similarity.