• feeding damage causes the leaf tips to dry up, whole leaves become orange and curled
• symptoms of viral diseases

• white eggs laid singly in the sheaths
• yellowish brown nymphs and adults sucking sap from the leaves in the upper parts and tillers near the base of the plant

• presence of grassy weeds
• volunteer rice in fallow fields
• all rice environments
• early growth stages of crop
• seedbeds and weeds between planting seasons

Zigzag leafhopper

Recilia dorsalis (Motschulsky)

• Drying of leaf tips
• Whole leaves become orange
• Leaf margins become orange and curl

Zigzag leafhopper adult (IRRI)

The presence of the insect pest feeding on the rice plant confirms its symptom damage.

There are no other symptoms that exhibit the feeding damage caused by the zigzag leafhopper.

Grassy weeds and volunteer rice in fallow fields attract the zigzag leafhopper and the viruses it transmit to exist between rice crops.

The rice zigzag leafhopper is found in all rice environments. It is abundant during the early rainy season in the early growth stages of the rice plant. It rarely occurs in large numbers. The adults usually stay in the upper parts of the rice plants.

A high population density of the zigzag leafhopper occurs in seedbeds and weeds between planting seasons.

Adult hoppers have characteristic zigzag white and brown pattern on the front wings. The female adult is 3.5-3.8 mm long. The male is 3.1-3.4 mm long.

Neonate nymphs are yellowish brown with a white abdomen, dull pink eyes, a deep brown thorax, and brown patches on the vertex. Mature nymphs are brown with darker brown markings.

Individual eggs are cylindrical and white. They measure 0.9 mm long and 0.2 wide. With age, they turn to straw color. Two distinct red spots appear as eyes of the developing nymph prior to hatching.

Its main host is rice. It also feeds on grasses such as Echinochloa sp., sugarcane, wheat, and barley.

Both the adults and nymphs of the zigzag leafhopper suck sap from the leaves and leaf sheaths using their slender and segmented beak.

In large numbers, these insects become important because they transmit viral diseases such as rice tungro, dwarf, and orange leaf viruses. They feed on the rice plant during all most all the stages of the crop particularly the vegetative stage.

Zigzag leafhopper may transmit virus diseases but its low population makes the insect a minor pest of rice.

There are parasites and predators that help regulate the population of this insect. Mymarid wasp and the mirid bug prey on the eggs. Dryinid wasp and pipunculid flies parasitize both the adults and the nymphs and spiders eat the adults.