The Rice Grasshopper (Hieroglyphus Banian)

 

The Rice Grasshopper (Hieroglyphus Banian)

Scientific Name:

    Hieroglyphus Banian

Common name :

    The Rice Grasshopper, The Phadka Grasshopper or The African rice grasshopper

Order:

    Orthoptera

Family:

    Acrididae

Distribution:

    Widely distributed in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and South China.

Host:

    Rice, maize, sorghum, bajra, til, moong, millets, sugarcane, arhar, sunnhemp and grasses.

    Both H. banian and H. nigrorepletus are some what like locusts but are smaller. The adults are 40-50 mm long and are shining greenish yellow, having three black lines running across the pronotum. Nymphs are yellowish, with many reddish brown spots in ihe early stages, but become greenish as they grow older.

Life-cycle:

    The pest passes the winter and dry parts of summer in the egg stage. The eggs are found in the soil which hatch few days after the first shower in June or early July. The newly emerged nymphs start feeding actively and are fully developed after passing through seven stages which take about 3 weeks. The adults feed voraciously during August and September. Two months old adults mate and the females start laying eggs by inserting her abdomen in the soil. The eggs are laid in pods 5-8 cm deep in the soil and are covered by a gelatinous substance. Each pod contains 30-40 eggs. The egg laying continues from September to November. There is only one brood in a year.

Damage:

    They are polyphagous. The nymphs and adults generally feed on grasses before attacking the crop. The leaves are completely eaten, leaving the mid-rib and stalk. (Plate 2). The adults attack the ears or nibble at the tender florets or gnaw into the base of the stalk, leading to the formation of white ears'. In certain years, they cause extensive damage, moving from field to field over large areas. An individual grasshopper during its life time eats about 42 gms (green weight) of maize leaves.

Control:

    Scraping the bunds and dusting the grasses growing on the bunds and in the wasteland around paddy fields with 1.3% lindane dust immediately after the outbreak of the monsoon will check the initial infestation of the grasshopper. Further dust the crop with 1.3% of lindane or 4% endosulfan @ 25 kg/ha or spraying with 0.05%endosulfan 35 EC is also effective in controlling this pest.