Abstract: Sexual recognition and communication in the rice brown planthopper,Nilaparvata lugens depend on substrate vibration. Based on the strong taxis of male to female signal of the same species, an acoustic trap system comprised of a mechanical trap, a transducer and a trapping signal generator, was assembled for the laboratory experiments. The results showed that the acoustic trap was characterized by its species specification. The trapping percentage (TP) of the acoustic trap varied with the age of males tested; it reaches the maximum when the males were 4 to 5 days after emergence. With the experiment time lasting, the trapping effect was reducing. Furthermore, when the discontinous signal was used, TP was higherthan that when the continous signal was used. From 9:00 to 18:00, the number of the males trapped was 54.0%±10.8% of the 24h total; the highest number was around noon. Ambient temperature also affected TP. Between 26℃ and 28℃, the acoustic trap had the highest TP. But the weather outside such as sunny, cloudy and rainy day, did not influence TP in the laboratory distinctly. The acoustic trap hadgood effect on the trapping for both the macropterous and brachypterous males. It would improve the collection procedure for rice plaathoppers in the field and be applied for pest forecasting purpose.

Key words: Nilaparvata lugens, acoustic trap