2 BULLETIN 1476, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 
The purpose of this publication is to record the more important 
results of the investigations upon the bionomics of the insect. The 
data pertaining to control, as well as to the quarantine and scouting 
operations, will be issued in a separate publication. Most of the 
information contained herein has accrued since 1918, through in- 
vestigations carried on at bureau laboratories located at Arlington, 
Mass., Silver Creek, Schenectady, and Scotia," N. Y., Sandusky, 
Ohio, and Hyeres, Var, France, together with data obtained during 
the field control, scouting, and quarantine operations. The infor- 
mation obtained during the cooperative work with the Massachu- 
setts Agricultural Experiment Station (71) has also been freely 
drawn upon, as well as the original report from that station (70) 
announcing the discovery of the insect. 
SYSTEMATIC HISTORY AND SYNONYMY 
Until the latter part of the nineteenth century not a little con- 
fusion existed in foreign literature concerning the systematic history 
and synonymy of the insect that is now known in America as the 
European corn borer (Pyrausta nubilalis Hiibn.). 
In 1796 Hiibner (26, figs. 94, 116) described and figured a male 
moth from Hungary as Py rails nubilalis. (Hub., fig. 94.) At the 
same time he described and figured a female moth from Austria as 
P. silacealis. (Hub., fig. 116.) The food plant was not mentioned 
in either instance. It was afterwards shown by Treitschke (67, 
p. 81) in 1829 that these supposed "species" merely represented 
opposite sexes of a single species. According to the law of priority, 
therefore, the name nubilalis is retained for Hiibner's species. The 
error by Hiibner, however, led several succeeding workers to adopt 
the name silacealis, which fact contributed to the confusion regard- 
ing its synonymy in Europe. 
The information pertaining to the eastern New York area was reported by C. F. Turner, 
J. H. Harman, E. M. Searls, T. R. Richardson, H. D. Smith, J. J. Kelly, and H. P. Wood. 
In the western New York and Pennsylvania area the information was obtained and 
reported by H. N. Bartley, L. B. Scott. C. E. Hofer, L. H. Patch, J. J. McCarthy, George 
Wisbart, and H. H. Hod^kiss ; and from Ohio and Michigan bv F. W. Poos, L. H. Patch, 
P. A. Howell, H. P. Wood, H. S. Peters, O. L. Cartwright, and E. G. Moore. 
Carl Heinrich kindly reviewed the section on systematic history and synonymy. He 
has also determined larvae, pupae., and adults of Pyrausta nubilalis, as well as closeiy 
allied species which were reared or collected during the progress of the investigations. 
J. M. Aldrich. of the United States National Museum ; A. B. Gahan and R. A. Cushman. 
of the taxonomic staff of the bureau in Washington ; and C. F. W. Muesebeck, of the 
gipsy-moth laboratory, have determined the parasitic insects mentioned herein. 
Much of the information on the corn borer in Europe has been taken from an unpub- 
lished manuscript written (in his capacity as collaborator of the Bureau of Entomology) 
by J. Jablonowski, director of the Hungarian Agricultural Experiment Station, Buda- 
pest, Hungary- (Jablonowski, J., The European Corn Borer and Its Control in Hungary. 
[Unpublished manuscript. Abstracted by W. R. Walton and J. S. Wade. Mimeographed.]) 
Professor Jablonowski has studied P. nubilalis in Hungary for more than 25 years, and 
his manuscript includes valuable and complete information relative to the history and 
distribution of the corn borer in Europe, as well as details concerning its biology in 
Hungary and the methods of control practiced in that country. 
W. R. Thompson, in charge of the European parasite laboratory conducted by the 
Bureau of Entomology at Hyeres, Var, France, has contributed most of the data relative 
to the parasites of P. nubilalis in Europe, as well as a portion of the information pertain- 
ing to its habits, seasonal history, economic status, and distribution in France, Belgium, 
and Italy. 
K. W. Babcock, of the Arlington, Mass., laboratory, who began environmental research 
studies upon P. nubilalis in Europe during the spring of 1924, has also contributed infor- 
mation relative to the seasonal history, habits, economic status, and distribution of the 
borer in Hungary, Italy, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Germany, and France. 
- Mr. S. C Vinal, who conducted the initial investigations of this pest with great ability 
and zeal, died Sept. 27, 1918. It is believed that his untimely death was due largely to 
his intense devotion to the work. Had he lived to complete his task there is no doubt 
that he would have contributed largely to the success of the project. 
3 Italic numbers in parentheses refer to " Literature Cited," p. 143. 
