Did the Native Americans grow corn
that was free of earworms?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

August 29, 2001

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The corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) [hel i cov' erp a zee] is not a pretty baby. Actually, it is a rather disgusting creature to come across when husking fresh corn for dinner. The adult stage, a moth, is not much prettier. This caterpillar is also a common pest on tomatoes and cotton. It has probably been a pest since these plants were first domesticated by Native Americans thousands of years ago. Today, farmers lose 100 million dollars a year to ruined corn crops and the cost
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Native American Woman Prepares for a Corn Dance Photographic Print
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of insecticides to control the earworms.

Corn is monoecious; it has male flowers (tassel) at the top and female flowers (ears) in the axils of the leaves. The female flower has thin thread-like styles called silk. Pollen from the tassel falls onto the silk of the ear. The sperm from the pollen grain travels down the thin style to fertilize a single ovule which becomes one kernel on the ear. Earworms can damage corn crops in two ways. When these caterpillars eat the silks, they prevent the kernels from forming. Or if the moth lays her eggs after the corn is pollinated, the caterpillars begin eating the kernels.

The corn earworm may be ugly and destructive, but it is interesting. It cannot survive where the soil freezes in the winter. Every year, the moths must migrate from the southern U.S. heading north and laying eggs as the corn crops begin to grow. Although, earworms have never adapted to cold weather, they have adapted to new food sources like soybeans and strawberries.

Varieties of Corn that Lacandons Grow in Their Milpas, Selva Lacandona, Naha, Chiapas, Mexico Photographic Print Russell Gordon
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But corn isn't totally defenseless. Agricultural scientists in Georgia have found that an early primitive race of corn from Mexico produces a chemical called maysin in the silk. Maysin affects the corn earworm by binding the amino acids in the intestine. The ugly little bug cannot digest these bound amino acids and starves to death before it gets the chance to ruin the ear. Using genetic mapping and careful hybridization, scientists hope to produce a variety of corn that will not need pesticides to keep the earworm away.

There are photographs of this agricultural pest taken by John L. Capinera, University of Florida, and USDA. Click on the link:

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/veg/corn_earworm.htm

To view a photograph of the adult stage, a moth, click on the link:

http://www.gaipm.org/top50/images/Jones12.jpg

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