Orseolia oryzae, also called the Asian rice gall midge, is a species of small fly in the family Cecidomyiidae.

In 1890, an unidentified insect was found to be attacking the rice crop in Munger district of Bihar, in India.

The English zoologist James Wood-Mason identified the insect as a midge, called it Cecidomyia oryzae, and wrote about it in the American Naturalist, but did not formally describe it.

Suddenly with the Green Revolution came higher yielding but more susceptible varieties, and ever since then O. oryzae has been among the top four insect pests (overall, not just in rice) in South and Southeast Asia and China.

The females are about 3.5 mm (0.14 in) long, bright red, with broad abdomens and dense short hair, while the males are slightly smaller, yellowish-brown and more slender.

The females lay small batches of eggs (two to six) on the undersides of rice leaves, totalling 100-400 in a lifespan.

[5] This is a pale cylindrical, hollow tube with a green tip replacing the normal culm (stem).