Dataset related to the responses of eggplant plants to Bemisia Tabaci whitefly in presence of one of its natural enemies, the Macrolophus pygmaeus plant bug

This dataset assesses the response of eggplant plants to 3 conditions: noninfested control plants, plants infested by Bemisia tabaci whitefly, and plants infested by Bemisia tabaci where Macrolophus pygmaeus plant bug was also released.

The data of the various parameters relating to the responses of the different eggplant plants to the three tested conditions were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. Where significant differences were detected, the means were separated by Tukey’s HSD test (p < 0.05). Statistical analysis was carried out using the program Statistica (StatSoft, TIBCO Software Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA).

The provided dataset was used in the investigation of whether the Macrolophus pygmaeus (Hemiptera: Miridae) plant bug can mitigate the damage caused to plants by the Bemisia tabaci whitefly (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). A discussion and interpretation of the data, as well as subsequent results, is provided in the scientific publication "Can Macrolophus pygmaeus (Hemiptera: Miridae) Mitigate the Damage Caused to Plants by Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae)?", published in the Insects journal. 

This research was conducted within the VIRTIGATION project, which is part of the EU Open Research Data pilot. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101000570.