Asian corn borer
| Ostrinia furnacalis | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Crambidae |
| Subfamily: | Pyraustinae |
| Genus: | Ostrinia |
| Species: | O. furnacalis |
| Binomial name | |
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Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée, 1854) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Ostrinia furnacalis is a species of moth in the family Crambidae, the grass moths. It is known by the common name Asian corn borer. Its distribution extends from China to Australia. It is well known as an agricultural pest on several crops, especially corn. It is one of the worst corn pests in Japan and China. It has invaded corn crops in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. It can be found in Java, Sulawesi, the Philippines, Borneo, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Micronesia. It is likely the worst pest insect on corn in the western Pacific region of Asia, and one of the worst pests overall, second only to maize downy mildew. This moth is a close relative of the European corn borer (O. nubilalis).
This is apparently a species complex; other Ostrinia such as O. orientalis, O. scapulalis, O. zealis and O. zaguliaevi can occur with O. furnacalis, and the taxa can be hard to tell apart.
The adult Asian corn borer is a moth with a wingspan of about 3.5 centimeters and yellow-brown with brownish lines. It lays a mass of about 25 to 50 eggs on plant leaves. The egg is half a millimeter long and white in color, turning black before emergence. The first-instar larva is pinkish with dark spots and a dark head. The late-instar larva is yellow-brown with dark spots and reaches up to 2.9 centimeters long.
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Wikipedia