Biology and development of brown plant hopper Nilaparvata lugens (Stal) on rice under laboratory conditions
The brown planthopper (BPH, Nilaparvata lugens (Stal)) is an important pest of rice that causes significant yield loss. To prevent severe economic losses, it is crucial to implement effective sustainable management practices within an integrated pest management framework. Developing effective management strategies requires a thorough understanding of the pest’s biology. Hence, the study on the biology and development, N. lugens was conducted under controlled laboratory conditions (25 ± 5°C, 70 ± 5% relative humidity and 14:10 h light:dark) at ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad, Telangana (17°32′N, 78°39′E). The yellowish brown to dark brown one adult female laid an average of 110.8 eggs in cluster ranged from 4 to 16 eggs per cluster by trusting the leaf sheath serially. The highest number of eggs (87.60 %) were laid on leaf sheath of plants followed by midrib (9.20 %) and stem (3.20 %). The average incubation period was 7.20 ± 0.86 days with 81.39 per cent hatching. Emerged nymph passed through five nymphal instars to become an adult. The mean durations of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th instars were 2.15 ± 0.08, 3.35 ± 0.10, 4.45 ± 0.15, 3.75 ± 0.09 and 3.80 ± 0.09 days, respectively and nymphal survival was 86 ± 1.87 per cent. The pre-oviposition, oviposition and post oviposition period varied from 2-5, 11-14 and 3-6 days, respectively with the mean values of 3.4 ± 0.40, 12.2 ± 0.58 and 4.8 ± 0.58 days, respectively. Adult male was short lived (15.20 days) as compared to female (19.6 days) with 1.0:1.35 sex ratio.