Nymphs of citrus spiny whitefly, Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Quaintance), were collected from seven tea gardens, located in Hangzhou, Fuyang and Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province, Xuancheng and Jiuhuashan in Anhui Province, and Jiulongshan of Wuyishan Mountains and Jinshan of Fuzhou in Fujian Province, respectively. The genetic diversity of the seven populations was assessed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) techniques. Genomic DNA of the samples was amplified by nine specific primers (10 bp) screened from 40 random primers, and the products were separated by polyacarylamide gel, resulting in 248 clear and stable bands ranging from 200 to 2000 bps, 199 of which were polymorphic bands, i. e. the polymorphism was 80.24 %. Analyzed by Popgene software, the average percentage of polymorphic loci (PPL) in A. spiniferus was 48.33 %, Nei′s genetic diversity (HE) was 0.2910, and Shannon′s information index (H) was 0.4442, which indicated a high level of genetic diversity in seven populations; there was also a high value of differentiation (Gst = 0.3749) among the populations. The Jiulongshan population (JLS) had the greatest percentage of PPL, whose value is 77.42 %, followed by Jiuhuashan population (JHS) (65.73 %); furthermore, the two populations had greater Nei′s genetic diversity (HE), Shannon′s information index (H) and other genetic indices than the other five populations. Using the software NTSYSpc, based on Nei′s genetic distance, the cluster analysis, the dendrogram analysis and the multi-dimensional scaling analysis (MDS) for all of the sampled whitefly individuals and populations were constructed. The results showed that the individuals from the same population clustered together first, then the populations with high genetic similarity clustered in sequence. Multi-dimensional scaling analysis also showed that Hangzhou, Fuyang and Shaoxing populations mustered, and the Xuancheng population was close to them. Jiulongshan population and Jiuhuashan population composed a group, while the Jinshan population displayed as a separate group. This suggests that the genetic distance between whitefly populations may be related geographyical distance. The genetic diversity of two mountainous populations differ from those of other populations, for the adaptive ecogeographic differentiation of whitefly populations that is brought by the mountainous environments and climate.