Rice Grasshopper : Hieroglyphus banlan(Fabricius)

 Domain: Eukaryota

     Kingdom: Metazoa

         Phylum: Arthropoda

             Subphylum: Uniramia

                 Class: Insecta

                     Order: Orthoptera

                         Family: Acrididae

                             Genus: Hieroglyphus

                                 Species: Hieroglyphus banian

Introduction

 Rice grasshopper is an important pest of rice.

 It feed throughout the year on rice, maize, millet, sugarcane and other grasses.

 Adults are about the size of 5 cm in length.

 The color of the body is shiny greenish yellow with three back lines on its upper side. In early
stage, the young are yellowish with many reddish brown spots and gradually becomes greenish
as they grew old.

 They are mostly found near grasses, water channels, ditches and rice fields.

Damage

 It causes heavy damage to nurseries and reduce yield.

 The adults and young eat leaves at the side first as a result large chunk of leaves becomes
damage.

 During august and september they cause heavy damage and leaf shedding may occur.

 They also feed on grains which results empty panicles.

 Both young and adult stages feed upon the leaves and shoots of paddy. They also cut off the ear
heads.
 Biology

 They lay eggs from September to November in the soil.

 Eggs are laid in pods and each pod contains many eggs. Usually Females lay 3-5 egg pods each
containing about 35 eggs in the soil from middle of August to October.

 This insect have one generation in a year and pass the winter and dry part of summer in eggs
stage.

 It sleeps between November to March and the eggs hatch at the end of June or in early July
and , nymphs start feeding actively and complete 7 stages in 3 weeks.

 The hoppers take 70 days in case of male and 80 days in case of females to become sexually
mature.

Management

 Avoid sowing alternate host plants near the rice crop .

 Cut the soil with a spade or rake, especially in rice field bunds & water channels to destroy the
egg pods .

  The egg masses are destroyed by ploughing the field and exposing them to birds.

  Introduction of Scelio hieroglyphi (Gir.) is beneficial since they parasitize the eggs of H. banian.

 Spray a pesticide like fenitrothion + BPMC (fenobucarb) @ 400 ml/acre or dust fenitrothion +
BPMC @ 12 Kg / acre when the number of grasshoppers is found to be more than 2/ sweep in
nursery or 5/ sweep in crop
 Note: fenitrothion can have serious effects on non-targets.

 Purchase the pesticide from an authorized pesticide dealer.