Rice Mites of South Bengal, India

Rice is an important food crop of entire South-East Asia, South America and many other parts of the world. Unfortunately, this crop is attacked by hundreds of pests like insects, mites. nematodes, etc. of which mites are increasingly becoming important in pest complex scenario. Due to their small size, many a times they are overlooked and escape the notice and they make their presence felt only when pest outbreak occurs seriously and extensive damage is done causing substantial economic loss to the growers. The mites which occur in rice ecosystem (rice crop, adjoining weeds, accumulated water in rice fields, storage rice husk etc.) have been dealt with regarding their diversity, seasonal occurrence, varietal preference, district wise distribution etc. along with management of an important pest mite (Oligonychus oryzae) with green pesticides and entomopathogenic fungi. The research result reports occurrence of 81 species including both phytophagous and predatory ones, giving their detailed taxonomic data, provides informations regarding their varietal preference, highlights the susceptible and resistant varieties and focuses the potential plant extracts and entomopathogenic fungi.