Among the four rice varieties examined, the leaf sheath of the resistant variety, Ptb33 and the moderately resistant variety, ASD 16 had thin septa of cells between air chambers when compared to susceptible varieties namely TN 1 and Basmati 370. The cross section of the leaf sheaths of the susceptible plants viz., Basmati 370 and TN 1 revealed that they had wider air chambers and vascular bundles with lower lignification when compared to moderately resistant and resistant varieties, viz., ASD 16 and Ptb 33 respectively. Sclerenchymatous cap and extra parenchymatous sheath were found over the vascular bundles in Ptb 33, which was not found in other three varieties. The BPH stylet sheath probing pattern on rice varieties by microtome sectioning revealed significant variation in the stylet path. The stylet path was branched in Ptb 33, whereas it was unbranched, wavy, thinner and single tube-like in susceptible rice varieties like TN 1 and Basmati 370.