author(s)
Rameshwar Singh Dhruv and Vijay Kumar Soni

abstract
Studies were undertaken at S.K. College of Agriculture and Research Station, Kawardha, during kharif 2017-2018 to assess the influence of ambient weather on population fluctuation of rice insect pests viz., stem borer, leaf folder, green leafhopper, plant hopper and gundhi bug through light trap catches. The light trap catches of rice insect pests were recorded at weekly interval during 27th Standard Meteorological Week (SMW) to 48th Standard Meteorological Week (SMW) and the data were correlated with the weather parameters which, indicates that IInd week of October to last week of November is the period of maximum activity of major insect pests of rice. Yellow stem borer and case worm showed significant negative correlation with minimum temperature with r value -0.487, -0.500, respectively, however, leaf folder showed significant positive correlation with RH-II with r value 0.421 at 5% level of significance. Green leafhopper, planthopper (BPH +WBPH) and gundhi bug were showed significant positive correlation with sunshine hours with r value 0.525, 0.522, 0.484, respectively, at 5% level of significance.