Some Hereditary and Ecological Observations on Small Brown Planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus (FALLÉN), Having Red-Colored Eye

A certain number of small brown planthoppers, having red-colored eyes, was obtained in F2 by crossing within general black-eyed small brown planthoppers collected from the field of our experiment station at Sapporo in October 1962. The occurrence of red-colored eye of this species seems to be new record. Inheritance of red color in eye was studied and was found to follow the Mendelian simple recessive gene explanation. Some ecological characters of both strains, black and red eyed, were compared but notable differences were not pointed out in preoviposition period, percentage of hatching, mortality at nymphal stages, nymphal growth, percentage of the appearance of the macropterous females, relation between renewing interval of food and the percentage of appearance of the macropterous females, phenomenon of diapause, acquisition and ability of transmission of the northern cereal mosaic virus. But certain differenses were recognized in sexual proportion of emerged adults, oviposition period, and number of eggs laid. The red-eye individuals were not found in the field, and the red-eye strain does not differ from the black-eye strain in its behavior. Accordingly, it may be possible to utilize the red-eye strain as a marked indvidual in the study of relation between transmission of viruses and ecology of this species.