Biology of whitebacked plant hopper, Sogatella furcifera on basmati rice under agroclimatic condition of Haryana

The whitebacked planthopper (WBPH), Sogatella furcifera (Horvath) is an important pest of rice ( Oryza sativa L.). The objective of this study was to examine the biology of pest under agro-climatic condition of Haryana, India during Kharif -2012. Observations were taken to examine the site of oviposition, hatching, per cent larval duration, pupal period, longevity etc. The colour of adult was dull-white with blackish spot on dorsal side of abdomen with average fecundity of 132.8 eggs/female in cluster of 5 to 30 eggs. The highest number of eggs (71.96%) were laid on leaf sheath of plants followed by midrib (16.66%) and stem (11.36%). The average incubation period was 8.6±0.24 days with 84.21 per cent hatching. Maximum hatching of eggs was observed during morning hours. WBPH completed its post-embryonic development in 42.09 days (male) and 44.4 days (female) and passed through five nymphal instars to become an adult with 89 per cent larval survival and 89±0.05 per cent moth emergence. Adult male was short lived 14.4 days as compared to female (15.9) days with 1.0:0.78 sex ratio. This study provides detailed information on the morphological peculiarties of immature stages with the duration required for the completion of life cycle.