Sora (bird) Soras often eat the seeds of plants, such as smartweeds, bulrushes, sedges, and barnyard grasses. Seeds of annual wildrice ("Zizania aquatica") and rice cutgrass are eaten by soras in the eastern United States. A literature review lists crowngrass ("Paspalum" spp.) and rice ("Oryza sativa") as relatively important food sources for soras in the Southeast. Plants comprising <5% of the sora's diet are also listed and include spikerushes ("Eleocharis" spp.), duckweeds (Lemnaceae), pondweeds ("Potamogeton" spp.), panicgrasses ("Panicum" spp.), cordgrasses ("Spartina" spp.), and saltgrass ("Distichlis spicata"). Soras eat more plant food in fall and winter (68%–69%) than in spring and summer (40%).
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