Three rice planthoppers, the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens), the white back planthopper (Sogatella furcifera), and the small brown planthopper (Laodelphax striatellus) and the green rice leafhopper (Nephotettix cincticeps) are major homopteran sap-sucking rice pests in Korea. These insect pests commonly have highly modified mouthparts, the stylet bundle, for piercing and sucking. Two pairs of mandibular and maxillary stylets consist of the stylet bundle by interlocking each stylet, which forms the two canals, larger one for food canal and smaller one for salivary canal. Destructive damages result from direct feeding effects (hopperburing) with heavy infestation and/or transmitting virus diseases (Rice stripe virus and Rice black-streaked dwarf virus by L. striatellus and Rice dwarf virus by N. cincticeps). Damage level is closely related to the feeding behavior of sap-sucking insects, so generally honeydew excretion amount on the resistant rice variety is smaller than that on the susceptible. Therefore, the method to measure the honeydew excretion amount has been primarily used as an indirect way to compare the feeding amount between the susceptible and the resistant. On the other hand, the electrical penetration graph (EPG) technique was firstly developed by McLean and Kinsey (1964) to measure voltage changes during piercing and sucking of insect on the plant. Since specific voltage waveforms were identified and it was known that each waveform is commonly related to salivary and feeding behavior of insect stylets in the plant tissue, EPG technique has been used to real-timely and quantitatively measure feeding behavior of piercing and sucking insects on susceptible and resistant rice variety. However, identifying each different waveform distinctly and understanding biological function of each waveform are certainly necessary to analyze feeding behavior in the plant tissue such as phloem sap ingestion. In this study, the stylet penetration behavior of N. lugens, S. furcifera, L. striatellus, and N. cincticeps on rice plants (Oryza sativa) was evaluated through the use of a direct current based electrical penetration graph (DC-EPG). To accomplish this, we classified the EPG waveforms of planthopper group into seven different patterns, np, N1, N2, N3, N4-a, N4-b, and N5, according to their shapes, voltage amplitudes, voltage levels, and frequencies. The N4-b pattern was always preceded by N3 and N4-a, in that order. Continuous honeydew excretion only occurred during the N4-b period, and the honeydew deposited on a filter paper containing ninhydrin reagent during the N4-b period were stained into violet. Based on the location of the stylets in the cross-section of rice tissue and honeydew excretion, the EPG waveforms for the stylet penetration behaviors of the three rice planthoppers were assigned to the following groups; np: non-penetration of stylets, N1: penetration initiation, N2: salivation and stylet movement, N3: an extracellular activity near the phloem region, N4-a: an intracellular activity in phloem region, N4-b: phloem sap ingestion, and N5: activity in the xylem region. Futhermore, we classified the EPG waveforms of the green rice leafhopper, N. cincticeps into seven different patterns, Nc1, Nc2, Nc3, Nc4, Nc5, Nc6, and Nc7 according to their shapes, voltage amplitudes, voltage levels, and frequencies. The Nc6 pattern was always preceded by Nc5 pattern. The Nc6 pattern of the leafhopper was carefully considered as a phloem sap feeding behavior based on regular honeydew excretion. On the other hand, the planthopper group and the leafhopper hardly showed the phloem sap feeding pattern on resistant rice varieties during an EPG-recording. In addition, the duration of the phloem sap feeding patterns was highly decreased on resistant rice varieties relative to susceptible ones. From these results, it is suggested that the phloem sap feeding related patterns are an important parameter to determine resistance of rice plant.

• Bo Yoon Seo(Crop Environment Research Division, National Institute of Crop Science, RDA)