Population Dynamics of Rice Planthoppers and their Natural Enemies in Direct Seeded vs Transplanted Rice

A survey was conducted during the kharif 2020, in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh to study the population dynamics of rice planthoppers and their natural enemies comparing the direct seeded rice (DSR) with puddled transplanted rice (PTR). The results revealed that mean incidence of brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) was significantly higher in PTR (6.10, 11.22, 1.57/ hill) compared to DSR (4.70, 9.15, 1.15/ hill) during the three stages of crop growth viz., active tillering, panicle initiation and before harvest, respectively. Similarly, the population of white backed planthopper Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) was significantly higher in PTR (3.15, 5.43, 1.01/ hill) compared to DSR (2.28, 4.15, 0.82/ hill). Occurrence of natural enemies such as mirid bugs and spiders was also higher in PTR and showed a positive correlation with N. lugens (r=0.969 and r=0.136) and S. furcifera (r=0.973 and 0.119), respectively.