What was the European Corn Bore before corn arrived in Europe. I don’t think we can credit it to spontaneous genius materialization from the metaphysical plain of the nth dimension.
What’s the European Corn Bore? A Dutchman who complains incessantly about his bunions?
Corn is the term used to describe all such grains. So it’s probably being used to describe wheat or some such crop not maiz (what americans call corn).
To get serious, the European Corn Borer Ostrinia nubilalis, which I presume you mean, has a very wide diet and will feed on many plants besides corn. It gets its name in the US because (1) it was introduced from Europe, and (2) it is a major pest of corn. Before the discovery of the Americas (and of maize) by Europeans, it happily munched on many different crops in its ancestral homeland.
What it might have been called I don’t know, but according to my encyclopedia the European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis, although best known as a pest on corn, can also develop in millet, hops, potatos and beans. In Northern Europe it usually develops in figwort or Dooryard Dock. If I’ve managed my odd Norwegian name - through latin - to odd English name translation correctly.
In Norway though it’s named “Maispyralide” i.e. Corn/Maize Pyralid. But that’s probably because it doesn’t live this far north…
It could well be called “corn borer” elsewhere in Europe, or have a name connecting it with maize, simply because it feeds on maize now even if it didn’t do so originally.
It could equally well be called a “corn” borer because it feeds on corn. Only in America is “corn” equivalent to only one type of grain.
True, but apparently it is not a major pest of grains other than maize. Although it does attack wheat, this seems to be a recent adaptation. So it probably got its name from its effect on maize, not other kinds of “corn.”
I was wondering what the common english speaking farmer would have called it , before it decided to convert to a eater of corn. Figwort Bore, that’s funny. Dooryard Dock Bore funnier yet to hear a farmer speak that.
If it didn’t attack crops, I doubt the common English-speaking farmer would ever have been more than peripherally aware of its existence.
I thought I’d check my folklore resources just in case there was another common name. Nope, but I did find a summary of a shaggy dog story featuring a corn-borer:
C640. The Pet Corn-Borer. A man had a pet trained corn-borer named “Motor,” which he lost. After a long search, he gave up; then, when he was eating corn-on-the-cob – his last meal before killing himself – he looked and “out-bored Motor!”
No, don’t thank me.
The german name is Maiszünsler, which relates to the maize part of corn, but they distinguish between two types, one who eats maize and hop (southern germany), the other eats mugwort.
The main food types of the larvae are given as maize, hop, potatoes, millet and mugwort.
sidenote: it may be that the borer developed to a problem only after maize was introduced into Europe, because a related pest, the Colorado potato bug only developed as a problem after the potato had traveled from South America to Europe, and the bug from Colorado to Europe. Once they were both in the same area, the bug adopted and became a pest; before, it had only been a minor problem.
Baraboo Wisconsin was the grower of the worlds largest amount of hops for exactly one year. The next year the crop was devestated by a bug. I wonder if it was the same bug that is our corn bore now? I think it was called a hops beetle though. I recentely found a different source mentioning the hops in Baraboo, and it was a song in the National Archive. Thanks for the information.