author(s)
RP Soundararajan

abstract
Rice is a major crop attacked by several species of stem borers. Among various stem borer species, yellow stem borer Scirpophaga incertulas W. is cause considerable damage and severe yield loss in rabi and kharif crops of rice. Host plant resistant and development of durable resistant varieties can provide best alternate to other management strategies. Most of yellow stem borer resistant varieties developed were based on field screening. Artificial screening data provides valid information about the level of resistance in the varieties for long durability of the character in field cultivation. The difficultly in artificial screening is proper mass culturing technique for yellow stem borer and continuous supply of larva or adults for experiments. An attempt has been made on mass culturing of yellow stem borer in susceptible TN-1 and Pusa basmathi-1 plants. During first year mass culturing have been carried out in TN-1 plants and upto III generations was maintained. In the second and third year mass culturing was done with susceptible Pusa basmathi-1 plants. In both years only five generation was maintained continuously. Each year fresh adults were collected from fields to initiate the cultures. In the sixth year there was no adult emergence to continue the mass culture. Various biological parameters like development period, number of male and female emergence in each generation, duration taken for insect emergence, time taken for damage expression, oviposition rate in each generation was recorded and discussed. The first generation data revealed a healthy growth and development of yellow stem borer in the culture. But when the generation progress the parameters showed decline in their growth and development with low emergence of adult insects.