Population

Comparative assessment of the soil and vegetation in a municipal dumpsite at Iguomo, Benin City, Nigeria at different distances from the dumpsite was carried out. An area of 30m2 was marked out and divided into three plots of 10 m2 each and these were designated as plots A, B and C. An area of 10 m2 was also taken at a distance of 100m away from the dumpsite, it served as the control plot or plot D. Population sampling was done to determine the species diversity across the plots. Soil samples were collected from each plot and microbial and physico-chemical analyses were carried out.

Populations of the spiraling whitefly, Aleurodicus dispersus Russell (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae), were monitored on cassava plants in five sites in Benin City, Nigeria from February, 1999 to January, 2001 (24 months). The study revealed higher abundance of the whitefly on the mature and old leaves than the young ones. Since the distribution followed the same trend on all the sites, analysis of variance test on the data showed that the spatial distribution of whiteflies was not significantly different (P<0.05) from each other at P = 0.05 level. Periods of high population of A.