פרופ' דן גרלינג ז"ל

Dan Gerling is emeritus professor of Entomology at Tel Aviv University and adjunct curator of whiteflies at The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center. He joined the university in 1966, following a one year tenure in the Dry Land Research Institute at the University of California in Riverside and a post doctoral fellowship in the same place. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in 1959 from the Faculty of Agriculture of The Hebrew University and his PhD from the University of California at Riverside in 1965. Dan Gerling taught courses in evolution, general entomology, insect physiology, pest management and parasitoid biology. He is the editor of two books and the author of over 100 articles and book chapters.

During his career, Dan Gerling served as a visiting professor in numerous academic institutions including the Universities of California, Georgia and Hawaii, Simon Frazer University in British Columbia, Canada and the research laboratories of the USDA in Phoenix, Arizona and Beltsville, Maryland. He acts as a consultant for pest management and biological insect control world-wide and has been a collaborator of global food security-oriented projects in Africa and Asia.

2014  -                               Advisor, Pest management in fruit culture: Migal Galilee Research Institute LTD.

My lab focuses around the ecology and behavior of insects, in particular whiteflies and their natural enemies in order to understand their relationships in a present and evolutionary perspective. I do research on the occurrence of natural whitefly enemies in the field, their impact on field populations and the possibilities for using them as controlling agents in agricultural fields. I also study life cycles and tritrophic relationships wild whiteflies their hosts and natural enemies and examine the defensive mechanisms of the former.

In the laboratory, I examine the interrelationships and physiology of natural enemies, in particular parasitoids, with their hosts in the context of ditrophic and tritrophic feeding systems. Specific research projects include:

• Tritrophic relationships between Mediterranean perennial flora their whitefly pests and their parasitoids
• Biology, morphology and behavior on whitefly parasitoids: Encarsia and Eretmocerus species
• Biology of Cales noacki a parasitoid of Aleurothirixus floccosus.

Since 2007:

Asiimwe P, Ecaat J. S. Otim M, Gerling D, Kyamanywa S, Legg J. 2007. Life-table analysis of mortality factors affecting populations of Bemisia tabaci on cassava in Uganda. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 122:37-44

Asiimwe, P., Kyamanywa, S., Gerling, D. and Legg, J. P. (2007). Evaluation of Serangium n. sp. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) a predator of Bemisia tabaci (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) on cassava. Journal of Applied Entomology 131: 76-80 

Mahadav, A., Gerling, D., Gottlieb, Y. Czosnek H. and Ganim, M. 2008. Parasitization by the wasp Eretmocerus mundus induces transcription of genes related to immune response and symbiotic bacteria proliferation in the whitefly Bemisia tabaci BMC Genomics. 9: 342

Otim, M., G. Kyalo1, S. Kyamanywa, P. Asiimwe, J. P. Legg M. Guershon and D. Gerling, 2008. Parasitism of Bemisia tabaci (Homoptera:Aleyrodidae) by Eretmocerus mundus (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) on cassava. International Journal of Tropical Insect Science. 28: 158–167

Inbar, M. and Gerling D. 2008. Plant-Mediated Interactions Between Whiteflies, Herbivores, and Natural Enemies. Annual Review of Entomology 53: 431-448 

Gerling, D. Eyal Erel, Moshe Guershon and Moshe Inbar. 2009. Bionomics of Encarsia scapeata Rivnay (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), tritrophic relationships and host-induced diapause. Biological Control, 49:201–206.

*Gerling, D. and Rejouan, N. 2009. Bionomics of Encarsia inaron (Walker) parasitizing Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) in Israel. IOBC/WPRS Bul. 49: 91-96 (not peer reviewed)

Arnó, J., Gabarra, R. Liu .T.X., Simmons, A.M. and Gerling D. 2010 Biological control agents for Bemisia tabaci, predators and parasitoids, pp.385-421 In Bemisia: Bionomics and management of a global pest. P.A. Stansly and S.E. Naranjo, editors Springer, 540 pp.

Gerling, D. and Ben Ari, M. 2010. Whiteflies of the Mediterranean chaparral: a case of mutual manipulation. Israel Journal of Plant Sciences 58: 85–91

Arnó, J., Gabarra, R. Liu .T.X., Simmons, A.M. and Gerling D. 2010 Biological control agents for Bemisia tabaci, predators and parasitoids, pp.385-421 In Bemisia: Bionomics and management of a global pest. P.A. Stansly and S.E. Naranjo, editors Springer, 540 pp.

Horowitz, A.R..Antignus, Y., Gerling, D. 2011. Management of Bemisia tabaci whiteflies. In The Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) interaction with geminivirus-infected host plants. Editor, W.M.O. Thompson: pp. 293-322 

Gerling, D. Gershon, M., Erel, E. and Inbar, M. 2011 Diapause and its regulation in the whitefly Trialeurodes lauri. Bull. Ent. Res. 101: 741–747

Chiel E., D. Gerling , S. Steinberg , J. Klapwijk , K. Bolckmans & E. Zchori-Fein 2011. Contagious sterility in the parasitoid wasp Eretmocerus mundus (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae).
Biocontrol Science and Technology, 22:1, 61-66.

Gerling D. , Blackburn M B. 2013. Immature development of Eretmocerus mundus (Hymenoptera:Aphelinidae) Arthropod Structure & Development. 42:309-314

Zappala` L., Biondi A., Alma A., Al-Jboory I. J., Arno J`., Bayram A., Chailleux A., El-Arnaouty A., Gerling D., Guenaoui Y., Shaltiel-Harpaz L., Siscaro G., Stavrinides M., Tavella L., Vercher Aznar R., Urbaneja A., Desneux N. 2013. Natural enemies of the South American moth, Tuta absoluta in Europe, North Africa and Middle East, and their potential use in pest control strategies. J Pest Sci DOI 10.1007/s10340-013-0531-9

Legg James, Attiogbevi Eklou Somado, Ian Barker, Larry Beach , Hernan Ceballos, Willmer Cuellar ,Warid Elkhoury, Dan Gerling, Jan Helsen , Clair Hershey, Andy Jarvis, Peter Kulakow, Lava Kumar, Jim Lorenzen, John Lynam, Matthew McMahon, ,Gowda Maruthi , Doug Miano, Kiddo Mtunda , Pheneas Natwuruhunga, Emmanuel Okogbenin, Phemba Pezo, Eugene Terry, Graham Thiele, Mike Thresh, Jonathan Wadsworth, Steve Walsh , Stephan Winter, Joe Tohme, & Claude Fauquet. 2014. A global alliance declaring war on cassava viruses in Africa. Food Security 6:231–248

Liu, T.X., Stansly P. A., Gerling D. 2015.  Whitefly Parasitoids: Distribution, Life History, Bionomics, and Utilization. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 60:273–292

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