author(s)
Vijayaraghavendra R, Vijaya Lakshmi K, Chitra Shanker, Malathi S, Jagadeeshwar R and Damodar Raju CH

abstract
Flowers of five different plant species viz., green gram (Vigna radiata), marigold (Tagetes erecta), sunhemp (Crotalaria juncea), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) along with control (only air without flowers) were tested for their effectiveness in attracting predatory mirid bug Cyrtorhinus lividipennis (Reuter) and coccinellid predators - Micraspis discolor, Harmonia octomaculata and Coccinella transversalis in a six arm olfactometer at Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Flowers of different plant species acted as an odour source to attract different predators. C. lividipennis attraction was high in sunhemp followed by cowpea, marigold and okra and the lowest population was recorded in green gram. All three predatory coccinellids were attracted more to cowpea followed by okra and green gram and the lowest population was recorded in sunhemp followed by marigold flowers. These flowering plant species could be used in rice systems as bund /border crop to attract brown planthopper predatory mirid bug and coccinellids and suppress plant hopper infestation in rice main crop.