Studies on the seasonal increase of the population of the smaller brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus (Fallen).

The smaller brown planthopper overwinters mostly as the fourth instar nymph. The emerged adult disperses to winter barley or wheat plants. The adult of the first generation disperses into the rice field, and spends three generations in the rice field. The population densities of the adults of the first generation and the overall density of the second generations are the most important in relation to the incidents of the rice stripe disease which is transmitted by this insects. This study was intended to analyse the population increases in these important generations in relation to the kind and the different growing stage of the host plants. The insects were reared on potted host plants of different growing stage in the insect cages. The population increases of the insects in the cages were compared with those on the rice seedlings in the laboratory. The results are as follows: 1. The average longevities of the adults of the generations were 13.4 days for the overwintered, 12.9 days for the first, and 10.2 days for the second generation, and showed no significant differences between the generations even they seemed to be shorter than normal condition probably caused by the frequent disturbance at the time of food renewal in 2 or 3 days. 2. When they were reared on the rice seedling, the average numbers of the eggs per female were 131.2 for the overwintered generation, 124.9 for the first generation grown on the barley, and 142.3 for the second generation grown on rice, and shelved no significant differences between the generations. More than of the eggs were laid within 3 weeks. 3. The hatchabilities of the eggs laid on the rice seedling in laboratory were for the first generation, for the second generation and for the third generation. The estimated hatchabilities of the eggs were for the first generation, for the second generation, and for the third generation with the growing plants on the plots. The hatchability on the eggs laid by the adults infested on the barley on May 17 was compared with for the eggs laid by those infested on barley in late April. 4. The average total nymphal periods were 19.4 days for the first generation, and 13.3 days for the second generation in the laboratory and the mortalities of the nymphs seemed to related with the growing stages of the host plants. 5. With the pot experiments, the average per cents of the emerged adults were for the first generation, for the second generation, and , for the third generation. The average numbers of the emerged adults were for the pots infested on the barley on May 17, instead of adults for those infested in late April. 6. From above results, it may suggest that the innate qualities of the insect are not significantly different between generations, and the differences in the increase of the population for the generations might effected considerably by the differences in the physiological conditions of tile host plant, besides the differences in physical and other biological factors.