Strategies and Tactics of Using Life Space by the European Corn Borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hbn.) (Lepidoptera, Crambidae)

This paper is an analytical review of the current state of population biology research of the European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn. and its closest congeners. It focuses on the specific features of adult reproductive behavior that are formalized as evolutionary stable strategies and alternative reproductive tactics ensuring effective use of environmental resources by the populations within the species’ distribution range. The strategies and tactics are considered both at the level of the effects of environmental factors contributing to their implementation and at the level of the results of their implementation. Specific examples are discussed that show the importance of studying these strategies and tactics for pest control. The available material also reveals the importance of studying the Ostrinia spp. population biology for elaboration of their taxonomy. In particular, the European populations of O. scapulalis and O. nubilalis demonstrate a complicated system of reproductive relations, with persistent barriers of sexual isolation formed in some cases and panmixis maintained in others; in this way, the integral biological system retains its high adaptive potential within the range. As a result, the insects varying within a wide range of morphological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological properties form an integral population system of O. nubilalis sensu lato, a complicated taxonomic continuum within which O. nubilalis sensu stricto and O. scapulalis can be distinguished as semispecies.