Mating behaviour of brown planthopper nilaparvata lugens stàl (homoptera: Delphacidea) under certain biological and environmental factors

To date,there persists a significant gap in the mating behavioural study of brown planthopper (bph) for almost two decades. therefore,in this study mating response of brown planthopper (bph),a serious pest of rice was observed under the influence of different factors such as insect age (male 1-7 days and female 1-9 days),plant age as a food source (25-30 days,55-60 days and 85-90 days),temporal effects of the day (0800- 1100,1200-1500 and 1800-2100),temperature (22±2c,27±2c and 32±2 c) and wind velocity (0.00-1.00 m/sec,1.00-1.50 m/sec and 1.50-2.00 m/sec). the variation in mating response induced by these factors were measured based on several mating parameters such as female abdominal vibration,male dancing,male arrival,successful mating and mating duration. observations revealed that five days old insect pairing that had been reared on 25- 30 days old rice plants displayed the highest response in all mating parameters during the evening hours when temperature and wind velocity was observed to be low or at an optimum level. understating the influence of these factors on the mating behaviour of bph is essential as it serves as baseline for recording acoustic courtship signals for future studies. copyright 2016 zoological society of pakistan.