Also known as Asian Maize Borer
Ostrinia furnacalis

Damage to plants

• Feeding damage on leaves and in the whorl.
• Boring in the stems, tassels, ears and midribs which can lead to lodging, breaking of tassels, and dropping of ears.

Signs

• The adults, brownish or straw-colored moths, deposit their oval, light-yellow, overlapping, scale-like eggs in clusters of variable sizes on the upper side of leaves or on the husk.
• Underside of leaves scarified close to empty egg clusters.
• Perforations and ‘shot-gun’ damage on leaves emerging from the whorl.
• Large amounts of larval excrement in the leaf axis.
• Boring tunnels within the stems, tassel, and ears.

Factors favoring insects / pest development

• Mild cold/winter periods.
• Reduced tillage enables the larvae to overwinter.
• Continuous cultivation of hosts.
• Lack of natural predators.

Geographic distribution

• Widely distributed in Asia. Overlaps with Ostrinia nubilalis in central Asia.

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