Rivellia angulata Hendel, 1914

Whittington, Andrew E., 2019, The economic significance of the signal fly genus Rivellia Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Platystomatidae), Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 49 (2), pp. 135-160 : 153-154

Rivellia angulata Hendel, 1914

Larvae frequently infest pigeon pea ( Cajanus cajan ) at the ICRISAT Center in India ( Sithanantham et al. 1981). Sithanantham et al. (1987) demonstrated a positive association between the presence of R. angulata and root nodule functioning. Subsequent work at the same research facility on pigeon pea and on sorghum ( Sorgorum bicolor L. Moench ) noted that root nodule damage was greater in crops grown in Vertisols compared to those grown in alfisols and that there was a 70 % rate of damage to root nodules in artificially inoculated potted plants ( Kumar Rao & Sithanantham 1989).

In contrast, in pulse crops in northern Karnataka, India, larvae of Rivellia sp. caused up to 98 % nodule damage to mung bean ( Vigna spp. ), urd ( V. radiata ), cowpea ( V. unguiculata ), pigeon pea or red gram ( Cajanus cajan ) and groundnut when sown in July or later ( Siddappaji & Gowda 1980). Reed et al. (1989) noted that application of large doses of insecticides to soils was not successful, nor economic, but that adding nitrogen fertilizer to soil might alleviate nutrient deficiency caused by nodule damage. Later, Nambiar at al. (1990) demonstrated that root nodule damage could be significantly reduced by growing pigeon pea in pots seeded with strains of Bradyrhizobium sp. to which Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis was cloned. This produced a derivative gram-negative bacteria plasmid vector that transfers across a broad-host-range by conjugative mobilization.