Cereal Chem 52:314 - 321.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Aspergillus flavus and Other Fungi Associated with Insect-Damaged Field Corn.

D. I. Fennell, E. B. Lillehoj, and W. F. Kwolek. Copyright 1975 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

White and yellow ear corn collected from fields in Missouri and Illinois was examined for damage by corn borers, earworms, mites, stinkbugs, and sap beetles and for the presence of these insects. Kernels selected from insect-damaged and insect-free ears were examined for fungi. The combined incidence of Aspergillus flavus on damaged and undamaged corn varied from 0 to 10.6% depending on the county surveyed; the average incidence was 5.2%. A 6.3% incidence of A. flavus on kernels from ears having insect damage differed significantly from the 2.5% incidence on kernels from undamaged ears. Fusarium, Rhizopus, and Syncephalastrum also were observed more frequently on kernels from insect-damaged ears. Similar distributions of fungal genera were observed on kernels from ears damaged by earworms and corn borers and by mites and stinkbugs. A. flavus was isolated from 15% of the 195 insects collected from freshly harvested ears. The fungus was associated with a significantly higher proportion of earworms (37%) than corn borers (14%).