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Abstract BackgroundThe sweet potato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) is a globally important insect pest that damages crops through direct feeding and by transmitting viruses. CurrentB. tabacimanagement revolves around the use of insecticides, which are economically and environmentally costly. Host plant resistance is a sustainable option to reduce the impact of whiteflies, but progress in deploying resistance in crops has been slow. A major obstacle is the high cost and low throughput of screening plants forB. tabaciresistance. Oviposition rate is a popular metric for host plant resistance toB. tabacibecause it does not require tracking insect development through the entire life cycle, but accurate quantification is still limited by difficulties in observingB. tabacieggs, which are microscopic and translucent. The goal of our study was to improve quantification ofB. tabacieggs on several important crop species: cassava, cowpea, melon, sweet potato and tomato. ResultsWe tested a selective staining process originally developed for leafhopper eggs: submerging the leaves in McBryde’s stain (acetic acid, ethanol, 0.2% aqueous acid Fuchsin, water; 20:19:2:1) for three days, followed by clearing under heat and pressure for 15 min in clearing solution (LGW; lactic acid, glycerol, water; 17:20:23). With a less experienced individual counting the eggs,B. tabaciegg counts increased after staining across all five crops. With a more experienced counter, egg counts increased after staining on melons, tomatoes, and cowpeas. For all five crops, there was significantly greater agreement on egg counts across the two counting individuals after the staining process. The staining method worked particularly well on melon, where egg counts universally increased after staining for both counting individuals. ConclusionsSelective staining aids visualization ofB. tabacieggs across multiple crop plants, particularly species where leaf morphological features obscure eggs, such as melons and tomatoes. This method is broadly applicable to research questions requiring accurate quantification ofB. tabacieggs, including phenotyping forB. tabaciresistance.