Four local natural plant resources, rice seedling, water chestnut, sweet corn grain and sugarcane, in Guangdong and Guangxi of China were evaluated for their suitability as natural diets of the striped stem borer, Chilo suppressalis (Walker) in the massrearing of experimental populations. The results showed that the larvae feeding on sweet corn grains and water chestnuts had great superiority over those feeding on rice seedlings, sugarcane and those from field population. The larvae feeding on sweet corn grains had higher values of biological index, 92.0% of survival rate, 60.7 mg of average pupal weight, and 197.4 eggs per female of fecundity, except sex ratio (0.9∶1). There was no significant difference in the suitability between sweet corn grain and water chestnut which had been regarded as the best natural plant diet before. Therefore, sweet corn grain could serve as a suitable natural plant diet for massrearing of the rice striped stem borer due to the advantages of convenience for sterilization and lower cost.

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