TAMIL NADU AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

Tamil Nadu Rice Research Institute

AEN 631 Seminar 0+1
Black bugs as the pest of rice

Student Chairman
S. Venkatesh babuji Dr. G. RAVI
ID No. 09-602-011 Assoc. Professor (Entomology)
Abstract
Rice is a staple food for almost two-thirds of the world’s population. Rice black bug (RBB)
(Scotinophara sp.) is one among the pest that causing severe damage to irrigated and rainfed wetland
rice fields in recent days. They are also commonly known as rice Malayan bugs. The black bug was first
recorded in Indonesia in 1903 (Pathak and Khan, 2002). Besides India RBB is also an important pest of
Cambodia, China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Japan, and Sri Lanka. The
adult of the rice black bug is oval-shaped with shield pronotum and about 8-9 mm long and have five
nymphal stages. They are regarded as noisome insects because of their offensive odour (Saroja et al.,
1993). They are strongly attracted to light. Their flight activity to light traps coincides with the lunar cycle. The
female bug lays its eggs on the lower part of the leaves or on the basal part of the rice plant near the
water surface. It lays about 200 eggs during her lifetime and is laid in group of 40-60 eggs, eggs are
measuring 1 mm long and greenish when laid and turns pink when mature. The incubation period is
from 4 to 7 days. On hatching the nymphs undergo molting (in 30-37 days) 5 times and reach the adult
stage. The adult bugs lives up to 7 months (Ravi et al., 2008). Rice Black bug sucks the juice from the
basal part at the tillers and also from the midrib of the leaves and panicles at the milky stage, the feeding
activity is more during night hours. The attack of RBB results in stunting of plant and the plant turns
yellowish to reddish brown colour and later dies. Infestation at tillering stages leads to “dead heart”,
attack during the booting stage results in chaffy grains in all the tillers “white heads”. Heavy infestation
also leads to “bug burn” the death of entire plant. According to Cuaterno, 2007, ten adults RBB/ hill of
rice plant causes yield loss ranging up to 15 to 23 per cent. Yield is reduced by 60-80% during out
breaks or heavy infestation (Hilario et al., 2000) and in cauvery delta region in Tamil Nadu 100 % crop
loss was also reported (Ravi et al., 2008). The present seminar deals with the reasons for outbreak of
black bug in rice crop and its importance. Information available on pest management practices for the
successful control of emerging pest problem in rice is also discussed.
Selected References
Cahatian, P. O. 2000. Bio-ecological studies of the rice black bugs, Scotinophara coarctata (Fabricius)
(Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) on some of its natural enemies. Proc. of the Philippine Rice RD Meet,
Philippines. PhilRice and DA-BARMaligaya. pp 208-211
Cuaterno, R., 2007. Management of Malayan Rice black bugs (Scotinophara coarctata) using biological control
agents in the island provinces of philippines. www.agnet.org.
Hilario D. and Jr Justo. 2000. Management of rice black bug. Rice Technology bulletin. Philippine Rice Research
Institute. Vol. 31
Pathak, M and Z. R. Khan. 1994. Insect Pests of Rice. International Rice Research Institute. p 89.
Ravi, G.,K. Chozhan and S. Jebaraj. 2008, Rice blackbug menace in cauvery delta zone. DRR Newsl., 4(3):4-5.
Saroja, R., M. Subramanian and A. Abdul Kareem. 1993. Rice black bugs (Scotinophara sp). Rice research
station,. Tamilnadu Agricultural University, Tirur. p 29.