Question

Which way insect pests attack the plant?

Answer 1

Hint: Most plant pests are herbivores and possess chewing mouthparts that are used to consume a plant or a part of it directly. These pests use their mandibles for various functions including masticating (knead), triturate (grind), or abrade (scrape) the plant tissue into convenient bites.

Complete answer: Insect pests destroy the crops using many ways, including,
-The sucking of the cellular sap from various parts of the plant.
-The cutting of the roots, stem, and leaves of the plants
-Boring into the stems and fruits of the plant
The insect pests cause two main types of damage to growing crops, which includes:
i). a direct injury inflicted on the plant by the feeding insect that eats the leaves or bores into the stems, fruit, or roots. These pest species include orthopterans, homopterans, heteropterans, coleopterans, lepidopterans, and dipterans.
ii). Indirect damage to the plant where the insect transmits a pathogen such as bacteria, viruses, or fungi into the crop. This way the plant pests affect the health of the crops and reduce the crop yields.
So, the correct answer is option D.

Additional Information:
Leaf miners include Diptera and Lepidoptera. They are specialized herbivores that excavate the chambers in the mesophyll, the inner layer of cells between the upper and lower epidermis of the leaf. Other species concentrate on epidermal cells.

Note: Some plants have specially devised strategies that they have developed for their own defence from the pests. These include the stems modified into thorns or leaves modified into spines, stings, a thick cuticle, or some waxy deposits that trap the insects. The second line of defence includes the plants producing toxic or distasteful secondary metabolites.