Reproductive biology and population dynamics of the rice bugs, Leptocorisa oratorius (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Alydidae) and evaluation of indigenous baits against the pests
2006
Guimba, J.M., Philippines Univ. Los Baños, College, Laguna (Philippines)
The reproductive biology of L. oratorius was studied in the screen house in the farmer's field. Female rice bug became sexually mature in 6-16 days. They mated 1 to 3 times with a mean of 1.8 +- 0.8. Male and female adult preferred to mate early in the morning (7-9 a.m.) and rarely at night. In the field, the highest number of mating occurred during flowering stage when the adult population was abundant. Female laid their eggs at 3-5 days after copulation. The number of insects attracted and caught in the baffle traps with the indigenous baits varied. An abundant number of rice bugs were attracted to the spoiled fish bait. This was followed by kuhol and shrimp in the four succeeding crop stages (panicle initiation, flowering, soft dough and hard dough stage). The number of rice bug caught by baffle traps was relatively high during flowering stage and declined during hard dough stage. The majority of the bugs caught were male. The population age structure of the rice bug under different crop stages varied. The eggs, young and old nymphs were abundant during hard dough stage of the crop and the adults were found relatively numerous during flowering and soft dough stage. All the developmental stages of insects were significantly different among each other throughout the stages of the crop except for the eggs. Weather factors and availability of food could have contributed to the fluctuation of the population density of rice bug during the study.
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