Abstract: Rice blue beetle, Leptispa pygmaea is a pest of paddy which feed on paddy leaves by scraping the chlorophyll content. The rice blue beetle has been reported to be a pest of paddy attaining major pest status in many districts of North Kerala. No much work has been reported on this emerging pest. Here we report the partial DNA sequence of cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) of L. pygmaea (GenBank Accession No. KC427085) and its phylogenetic status. Phylogeneticaly the nearest relative of L. pygmaea are Colasposoma sp. Neolochmea dilatipenni, Chelymorpha alternans.