S. Choudharya*
*aDepartment of Botany, Yogoda Satsanga Mahavidyalaya,
Ranchi University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India.
Received 10th October,2012; Revised 28h November.,2012
Abstract : India is one of the world’s largest producers of white rice, one of the principal food crops, accounting for 20% of all world rice production. Rice being a tropical plant flourishes in hot and humid climate. The environment suitable for rice is also highly conducive for the development of organisms which greatly reduce the yield. Gall midge is one of them. A major pest of rice, the Asian rice gall midge (Orseolia oryzae Wood-Mason), causes significant yield losses of about US $80 million in India. The midge changes the morphological nature of the rice plant as the feeding by the larvae induces susceptible plants to produce nutritive tissue to support its growth and development. Due to disturbance by the insects, rice plants fail to produce panicle which is replaced by a hollow silver shoot commonly known as gall in the infected part. Rice varieties are known to differ in their response to gall midge. The paper thus records the change in morphology of the plant and variation seen in the size, shape and colour of the galls of the three varieties of rice plant i.e. the Badsahbhogh, Jaya and Dahiya due to effect by gall midge.
Keywords: Gall Midge, Panicle, Silver shoot
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