The White backed Rice Planthopper (Sogatella furcifera)
Scientific Name:
Sogatella furcifera (Horvath)
Order:
Hemiptera
Family:
Delphacidae
Distribution:
Bangladesh, India, Burma, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, China, Carolines, Marianas and Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Malaya, Japan, Laos, Indonesia, Korea, Ryukyu Islands, Sabah, Philippines, Sarawak, Taiwan, Sakhalin in the USSR, Vietnam, North Australia, Fiji, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and Papua.
Host:
Rice, maize, millets, sugarcane and grasses.
The nymph is grayish white and turns dark gray when it nears maturity. The adult is a straw-colored, wedge-shaped insect, with white back.
Life-cycle:
Due to the availability of paddy crops throughout the year in southern parts of India, the pest breeds continuously. But in northern India, the plant hoppers remain inactive in the winter. As the paddy is a monsoon crop, the pest becomes active in the paddy nursery sometimes in May and then shifts to the transplanted crop. The population of hoppers becomes quite high by August and September, The Female inserts the eggs in the leaf sheath and mid-rib of the leaves. The incubation period is 3.4-4.6 days. After hatching, the nymphs feed on leaves and transform into adults within 8.9-13.1 days. The total developmental period is 12.3 to 17.7 days. The longevity of adult females is about a week.
Damage:
Both nymphs and adults suck cell sap from leaf surface. The leaves infested by the grasshoppers turn yellow and later on rust red. The feeding symptoms start first from the leaf tips and then spread to the rest of the plant. Thus, numerous brownish spots appear on the feeding sites. The infested plants dry up without producing any ear. Due to honeydew secretion by the pest, a sooty mould develops. It is a vector of rice yellow virus.
Control:
Same as mentioned under Brown Plant Hopper, (BPB), Nilaparvata lugens.
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