Red-billed quelea including annual grasses of the genera "Echinochloa", "Panicum", "Setaria", "Sorghum", "Tetrapogon" and "Urochloa". One survey at Lake Chad showed that two thirds of the seeds eaten belonged to only three species: African wild rice ("Oryza barthii"), "Sorghum purpureosericeum" and jungle rice ("Echinochloa colona"). When the supply of these seeds runs out, seeds of cereals such as barley ("Hordeum disticum"), teff ("Eragrostis tef"), sorghum ("Sorghum bicolor"), manna ("Setaria italica"), millet ("Panicum miliaceum"), rice ("Oryza sativa"), wheat ("Triticum"), oats ("Avena aestiva"), as well as buckwheat ("Phagopyrum esculentum") and sunflower ("Helianthus annuus") are eaten on a large scale. Red-billed queleas have also been
Elasmopalpus brown anterior and distal margins. The larvae feed on a wide range of plants but prefer grasses. Recorded host plants include a number of economically important plants such as "Phaseolus vulgaris", "Beta vulgaris", "Brassica oleracea" var. "capitata", "Cucumis melo", "Cyperus esculentus", "Zea mays", "Vigna unguiculata", "Phaseolus lunatus", "Avena sativa", "Pisum sativum", "Arachis hypogaea", "Capsicum annuum", "Oryza sativa", "Secale cereale", "Sorghum bicolor", "Glycine max", "Sorghum sudanense", "Saccharum officinarum", "Ipomoea batatas", "Lycopersicon esculentum", "Brassica rapa" and "Triticum aestivum". They tunnel into the crown of their host plant, severely weakening large plants and often killing young seedlings. They spin silken tubes near the