Sampling with quadrats of 0.25 m2in Madagascan rice fields reveals that egg batches of the African White Stem Borer,Maliarpha separatellaRAG. are distributed at random. The physical size of the sampling unit is selected because of practical rather than ecological considerations. According to the enumerative sampling plan at least 40 quadrats should be taken per field to satisfy precision requirements. Sequential binomial sampling with constant error rates is more cost efficient and decision making with respect to an action threshold is possible with 12 quadrats or more at a critical time. For regional estimates a stratified random sampling procedure is proposed.