Host plants of rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and identification of Chilo Species in Mazandaran province, Iran

The exact identification of key pests and their host plants in a region has very important role for their successful control. Fauna of stem borers, Chilo Zincken, 87 (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and their host plants were studied in Mazandaran province. Totally, four species including, C. partellus Swinhoe, C. phragmitellus Hubner, C. suppressalis Walker and C. sacchariphagus indicus (Kapur) were identified that among the mentioned species, C. sacchariphagus indicus is newly recorded for Iranian fauna. In a total of 7 host plants from 7 families including, Amarantaceae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Sparganiaceae and Typhaceae were identified as overwintering plant hosts of Chilo suppressalis larvae, a key pest of rice in northern Iran. From the collected host plants, two species including, Raphanus raphanistram and Eleusine indica are newly recorded from Iran as the host plants of C. suppressalis. The samplings indicated that the highest numbers of collected host plants were belong to the family Poaceae. Also, the results revealed that the larvae of C. suppressalis preferred three host plants of Xanthium pensylvanicum, Amaranthus spp. and Sorghum halopensae for overwintering.