Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

Over half of the world’s population depend upon paddy as a staple food. Rice Oryza sativa is distributed all over the world with a high concentration in Asia. Most of this population increase will occur in developing countries of Asia and Africa, where rice is the staple food. Out of nearly 800 insect pest species recorded on paddy, only 18–20 species are major pests in tropical Asia. There is a rich complex of natural enemies in tropical Asia. These arthropod natural enemies have existed in this environment for thousands of years and have contributed to keep the pest species below damaging levels. Studies were conducted to record the abundance of natural enemies of rice caseworm and whorl maggot at the experimental farm of paddy in Rice and Wheat Research Centre, Malan, Palampur during kharif 2017. A total of nine predators belonging to three orders were found associated with both rice caseworm and whorl maggot. Amongest them damselfly, dragonfly, spiders were of more abundance. Trichogramma chilonis and Tetrastichus spp. were the egg parasitoid associated with the rice whorl maggot. While, no parasitoid was recorded associated with rice caseworm. The parasitization of Trichogramma chilonis initiated in the 1^th week of August (31 SW) (4.0%) and reached peak of 19.0 per cent during 1^st week of September (35 SW) and the parasitization of Tetrastichus spp. initiated in the 2^nd week of August (32 SW) (5.20%) and reached peak of 12.5 per cent during 2^nd week of September (36 SW).