Impact of Insecticides on the Resistance and Resurgence of Rice Planthoppers

Abstract

Several species of planthoppers are major rice pests. Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (brown planthopper) and Sogatella furcifera Horvath (whitebacked planthopper) occur in South and Southeast Asia throughout the year and migrate to Japan and Korea, presumably from mainland China in June and July (Nagata 1982). Laodelphax striatellus Fallen (small brown planthopper) is a serious pest in Japan and Tagosodes orizicolus Muir (the “sogata”) is an important pest in the Caribbean and Central and South America (Dale in press). These planthoppers damage rice plants directly by removing phloem sap. Nilaparvata lugens, L. striatellus, and T. orizicolus are also vectors of rice viruses. Nilaparvata lugens and S. furcifera have only within the last few decades emerged as important economic pests in tropical South and Southeast Asia and T. orizicolus in the Americas (Heinrichs 1988). However, N. lugens and S. furcifera figure prominently in the history of rice cultivation in the temperate regions of Japan and Korea and probably China.