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🇦🇹🇬🇧🇦🇹🇬🇧🇦🇹🇬🇧🇦🇹🇬🇧🇦🇹🇬🇧

Insetto vettore di virosi per cereali e ortaggi
Virus vector affecting cereals and vegetable crops

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🔍 Identificazione e morfologia | Identification and Morphology

Ordine | Order: Hemiptera
Famiglia | Family: Delphacidae

Laodelphax striatellus è una minuscola cicalina lunga 2,5–3,5 mm, con:

• Corpo slanciato bruno-grigiastro
• Ali traslucide, talvolta accorciate (brachittere)
• Ocelli rossi evidenti
• Striature longitudinali sul torace

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Laodelphax striatellus is a small planthopper measuring 2.5–3.5 mm, with:

• Slender brownish-gray body
• Transparent or slightly smoky wings, sometimes shortened (brachypterous)
• Prominent red ocelli (simple eyes)
• Longitudinal stripes on the thorax

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🌍 Habitat e distribuzione | Habitat and Distribution

Specie diffusa in Europa, Asia e Africa, predilige:

• Coltivazioni erbacee, in particolare graminacee
• Risaie e campi di cereali
• Aree con vegetazione spontanea

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Common in Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa, it thrives in:

• Herbaceous crop fields, especially grasses
• Rice paddies and cereal crops
• Areas with spontaneous vegetation

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🔁 Ciclo biologico | Life Cycle

• Fino a 5 generazioni l’anno in climi temperati
• Sverna come ninfa o adulto su graminacee
• Depone le uova tra le guaine fogliari
• Gli adulti migrano facilmente tra le colture

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• Up to 5 generations per year in temperate zones
• Overwinters as a nymph or adult on wild grasses
• Lays eggs within leaf sheaths of host plants
• Adults easily migrate between crops

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🍽️ Danni diretti | Direct Feeding Damage

Si nutre succhiando linfa con il rostro, causando:

• Ingiallimenti e necrosi fogliari
• Arresto della crescita
• Debolezza generale della pianta

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It feeds by sucking plant sap with its piercing mouthparts, causing:

• Leaf yellowing and necrosis
• Growth stunting
• Overall weakening of the plant

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🦠 Danni indiretti – Virus | Indirect Damage – Virus Transmission

È un vettore temuto di virus fitopatogeni come:

• Virus della striatura del mais (MRDV)
• Virus del nanismo dell’orzo (BYDV)
• Virus della striatura del riso (RSV)

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It is a serious vector of plant viruses such as:

• Maize rough dwarf virus (MRDV)
• Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV)
• Rice stripe virus (RSV)

Trasmette i virus in modo persistente: una volta infetto, resta contagioso per tutta la vita.
It transmits viruses persistently: once infected, it remains infectious for life.

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🌾 Colture colpite | Affected Crops

• Frumento, orzo, avena, mais
• Riso e cereali minori
• Lattuga, spinaci e ortaggi a foglia
• Erbe spontanee ospiti

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• Wheat, barley, oats, maize
• Rice and minor cereals
• Lettuce, spinach, and leafy vegetables
• Wild grasses as alternate hosts

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🛠️ Difesa integrata | Integrated Control

🧪 Difesa chimica | Chemical Control

• Insetticidi sistemici applicati precocemente
• Trattamenti mirati dopo l’emergenza

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• Early application of systemic insecticides
• Targeted treatments after crop emergence

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🌱 Pratiche agronomiche | Agronomic Practices

• Ritardo nella semina per evitare infestazioni
• Rimozione di piante spontanee serbatoio
• Uso di varietà resistenti

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• Delayed sowing to avoid peak infestations
• Removal of wild host plants
• Use of virus-resistant crop varieties

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🔍 Monitoraggio | Monitoring

• Trappole cromotropiche gialle
• Ispezione periodica delle colture

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• Yellow sticky traps
• Regular crop inspections

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✅ Conclusione | Conclusion

Laodelphax striatellus è un insetto minuto ma pericoloso, capace di devastare interi campi di cereali trasmettendo virus persistenti.

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Laodelphax striatellus may be tiny, but it poses a major threat to cereal crops through its efficient and persistent virus transmission.

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