Few useful microsatellites are available for population studies of the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner). An enrichment strategy was used to develop microsatellite markers for O. nubilalis, and over 500 positive clones were isolated. Seventy-five contained unique microsatellites, 10 of which were polymorphic with discernable polymerase chain reaction products. The 10 loci were su...

Maize (Zea mays Linnaeus, 1753) is economically the most important crop in Serbia, while European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner, 1796) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) its significant pest of this crop. One potentially successful and environmentally friendly method for biological control based on usage wasps from genus Trichogramma Westwood, 1833 (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), which parasiti...

Biological control of pest insects by natural enemies may be an effective, cheap and environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic pesticides. The cosmopolitan parasitoid wasp species Bracon brevicornis Wesmael B. hebetor Say (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) use lepidopteran as hosts, including insect pests like Ephestia kuehniella or Ostrinia nubilalis . Here, we compare the reproductive success ...

Oviposition preference by European corn borers, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), for or against transgenic corn would influence amounts of refuge required for resistance management. The objective of this research was to determine if various Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn transgenic events influence O. nubilalis oviposition. All commercially available events (currently 5) were evaluated, plus 1 ex...

Moths use ultrasounds as well as pheromones for sexual communication. In closely related moth species, variations in ultrasounds and pheromones are likely to profoundly affect mate recognition, reproductive isolation, and speciation. The European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis, and its Asian congeners, Ostrinia furnacalis and Ostrinia scapulalis, exhibit within-species and between-species varia...

(E)-11- and (Z)-11-tetradecenyl acetate are the most common female sex pheromone components in Ostrinia moths. The Δ11-desaturase expressed in the pheromone gland (PG) of female moths is a key enzyme that introduces a double bond into pheromone molecules. A single Δ11-desaturase of Ostrinia nubilalis, OnubZ/E11, has been shown to produce an ∼7:3 mixture of (E)-11- and (Z)-11-tetradecenoate from...

The main problems with Bacillus thuringiensis products for pest control are their often narrow activity spectrum, high sensitivity to UV degradation, and low cost effectiveness (high potency required). We constructed a sporulation-deficient SigK(-) B. thuringiensis strain that expressed a chimeric cry1C/Ab gene, the product of which had high activity against various lepidopteran pests, includin...

The response of male moths from two pheromone races of the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis, was measured in a flight tunnel assay to different ratios of structurally different compounds that comprise the sex pheromone of the Asian corn borer, Ostrinia furnacalis. For both O. nubilalis races, between 1 and 5% of the males completed upwind flights to two different blends of the O. furnaca...

Female European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis, produce and males respond to sex pheromone blends with either E- or Z-Δ11-tetradecenyl acetate as the major component. E- and Z-race populations are sympatric in the Eastern United States, Southeastern Canada, and the Mediterranean region of Europe. The E- and Z-pheromone races of O. nubilalis are models for incipient species formation, but hybrid...