Inheritance of ear resistance to European corn borer in 'Apache' sweet corn

European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hubner), can severely affect comme rcial sweet corn (Zea mays L.) quality during years of heavy infestation. G reater ear resistance in sweet corn could reduce the need for insecticide a pplication. A generation mean analysis was used to determine the inheritanc e of ear resistance and silk-channel length (SCL) in two crosses containing germplasm from the resistant sweet corn hybrid 'Apache'. Three inbred pare nts, F-1, F-2, and the first backcross populations were manually infested a nd visually evaluated in field experiments. For each cross, ear damage, SCL , and number of surviving larvae differed (P less than or equal to 0.05) am ong generations. The genetic effects affecting the variation for ear resist ance ranged from epistatic (Cross 1) to additive-dominance (Cross 2). Silk- channel length was controlled by epistatic (Cross 1 and Cross 2) effects. I nheritance of these traits is complex, probably involving multiple genes. A s the silk channel often is the point of larval entry, SCLs were hypothesiz ed to be important in ear resistance. The low to moderate correlations (P l ess than or equal to 0.01) across generations within each cross between ear damage and SCL (r = -0.18 and -0.75), surviving larvae (r = 0.78 and 0.79) , and number of larvae in each third of the ear (r = 0.64-0.84) suggest tha t extending the SCL is not the sole component responsible for ear resistanc e.