The Role of Birds in Reducing Overwintering Populations of the Southwestern Corn Borer, Diatraea grandiosella (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), in Mississippi1

Abstract

Research was initiated in the fall of 1967 to determine the role of birds in reducing overwintering populations of Diatraea grandiosella Dyar in Mississippi. The Yellow-Shafted Flicker, Colaptes auratus (L.), was the only bird observed removing overwintering larvae from the base of undisturbed corn stalks. Yellow-Shafted Flicker predation occurred from October to March. January, the coldest month of the winters, was the month of heaviest predation. These birds removed 64.0% of the overwintering larvae during the winter of 1967–68 and 81.8% during the winter of 1968â–69 from the study fields. Evidence of bird predation was observed in all fields examined in the spring surveys of 1968 and 1969. An average of 54.4% of the stalks in all fields was infested with overwintering larvae, and an average of 63.7% of these larvae was removed by the Yellow-Shafted Flicker.