European Corn Borer

The European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis), also known as the European high-flyer, is a pest of grain, particularly maize. The insect is native to Europe, originally infesting varieties of millet, including broom corn. The European corn borer was first reported in North America in 1917 in Massachusetts, but was probably introduced from Europe several years earlier. Since its initial discovery in the Americas, the insect has spread into Canada and westward across the United States to the Rocky Mountains. Recently, Patrice Leraut has claimed that the true Corn Borer belongs to a still undescribed species he named Ostrinia maysalis Leraut, 2012. It differs from the true Ostrinia nubilalis by some molecular et morphological characters. Also, the food plant of the true Ostrinia nubilalis is the common Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).

European corn borer caterpillars damage the ears of corn, as well as the stalks, by chewing tunnels, which cause the plants to fall over. Biological control agents of corn borers include the hymenopteran parasitoid Trichogramma spp., the fungus Beauveria bassiana and the protozoa Nosema pyrausta.

Bt corn, a variety of transgenic maize, has had its genome modified to include a gene from the Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. kurstaki. As a result, the corn variety produces a toxin which affects the corn borer. As critics have pointed out, beneficial predatory insects may be affected, as well, though further study is needed.

Immature maize shoots accumulate a powerful antibiotic substance, DIMBOA that serves as a natural defense against a wide range of pests and is also responsible for the relative resistance of immature maize to the European corn borer.