6 BULLETIN 1476, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 
ECONOMIC HISTORY IN THE OLD WORLD 
The status of P. nubilalis as a serious enemy of corn, hops, millet, 
and hemp has long been recognized in the Old World, although 
there are no existing records of it as an important economic pest 
prior to 1835. At that time it was recorded by Schmidt (54) as 
causing severe injury to millet (Panicum miliaceum) in Carniola 
(Yugoslavia). This author states that, under conditions favorable 
to the larva, the yields of millet fields attacked by it were reduced 
by one-twelfth or perhaps even one-eighth. Subsequent foreign lit- 
erature contains a large number of references to the occurrence of 
and serious injury by P. nubilalis in fields of corn, hops, millet, and 
hemp; especially in Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Russia, and 
France. Some of these reports give definite estimates concerning 
the degree of actual economic loss sustained, but in many instances 
the details regarding percentage of infestation and injury are lack- 
ing. Mention is frequently made in some of the foreign references, 
dealing particularly with certain areas where hops, millet, hemp, 
and broomcorn are attacked by P. nubilalis, that the insect is widely 
distributed in these areas, but that it is normally not abundant 
enough to be of practical importance. 
Judging from all available information it is apparent that in 
certain areas of the Old World, particularly where corn is grown, 
P. nubilalis becomes periodically abundant and causes severe losses, 
whereas in other areas it is a widely distributed pest which normally 
does not cause severe economic losses and seldom becomes destruc- 
tively abundant. 
Most of the foreign authors agree that corn is injured by P. 
■nubilalis to a greater extent than any of its other cultivated hosts, 
although some instances are cited of serious injury to hops, millet, 
and hemp. 
One of the first records pertaining to the European corn borer as 
a pest in Hungary was by Linclerman, early in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, who mentioned it as a pest of Indian corn. Emich (17) 
recorded damage in Hungary to corn, millet, and hemp during the 
period from 1871 to 1884. Szaniszlo (63) reported slight injury to 
corn and millet at Kolozsvar during 1884. In 1886 Jablonowski 
(27) asserted that some damage was wrought to corn in the Ban- 
hegyes district of Hungary. During the period from 1891 to 1893 
the same author recorded severe damage to corn from several locali- 
ties in Hungary, where, in badly infested fields the loss amounted 
to one-third of the yield, and in at least one field under observation, 
consisting of about TO acres, a total loss of the grain was sustained. 
According to Jablonowski (28) the insect was again very injurious 
to corn in Hungary during 1897. He observed severe injury to corn 
in at least 11 localities and estimated that the average damage 
throughout the country was at least one-fourth of the grain. At this 
time complaints were received from 1.600 to 1,800 official agricul- 
tural corresopndents concerning the damage caused by this pest. 
The same author (30) recorded another severe outbreak in Hungary 
during 1915 and 1916. The damage during that period was reported 
as being particularly severe in the Bacska, one of the principal 
corn-growing regions of Hungary. Jablonowski asserts that in 
1916 the large landowners of this region estimated their total losses 
