Leafhopper damage

Aug 10, 2018

Leafhopper damage

Aug 10, 2018

I visited a field with leafhopper damage. What was interesting about this field, is that the leafhopper causing the problem was not the aster leafhopper, which is the common one we have in rice. It was a different, green leafhopper that I have seen around in the past, but I have never paid much attention to. I don't even know what its name is (yet). It is green, larger than the aster leafhopper, and moves quite fast. We could not get a picture of it on a rice leaf, so here it is on a weed.

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The damage was similar to what I have seen when aster leafhopper feeds on rice. The tip of the leaves get yellow and eventually burned. In this case, the damage was limited to a cold water check, so no treatment is needed.

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Another interesting thing is that we found the eggs laid on watergrass plants around the field. Rice did not have any of the oviposition marks. They don't seem to like rice to lay their eggs. That is good because the lesions created due to the egg laying were quite large.

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By Luis Espino
Author - Rice Farming Systems Advisor & Butte County Director