• Entered nubitalis into Excite (was not sure of spelling of first word):
• First page found was in spanish; using the browser Find command I was able to ascertain that the first word was Ostrinia.
• Entered "Ostrinia nubitalis" into Excite
• Second page found associated "Hubner" (discoverer?) and the common name "European corn borer" with our subject.
• Entered "European corn borer" into Excite
• Found The European Corn Borer Home Page, sponsored by the Dept. of Entomology at Iowa State Univ., a fairly definitive site (including lots of images!).
• In the Introduction Page, again I found Hubner (with an umlaut) in parenthesis behind the name.
• I decided to try AskRef, UD Library's online reference service:

     To:      askref@www.lib.udel.edu (AskRef)
  
     I have been asked the following question:
     "Who named Ostrinia nubitalis?"
  
     I believe that this is the scientific name for the
     European corn borer. Would you be able to point me
     in the right direction?  Thanks in advance.
  

  The response came back less than four hours later:
  

     From: AskRef <refreply@hawkins.lib.udel.edu>
     Subject: Re: Askref Question [WWW]
   
     Dear Dr. Watson:
   
     According to _Nomenclator Zoologicus_ the Ostrinia
     nubilalis was named by Huebner.  The _History of
     Entomology_ further identifies this person as J. Hubner
     (with an umlaut over the "u") (1761-1826).
     The attached bibliographic citation from _WorldCat_
     further identifies him as Jacob Hubner.  I hope this
     information is helpful, and thanks for using our AskRef
     service.    
   
     ACCESSION: 36831875
          AUTHOR: Hubner, Jacob, 1761-1826.
           TITLE: Sammlung europaeischer Schmetterlinge
                  errichtet von Jacob Hubner in Augsburg.
                  1805.
           PLACE: [Augsburg,
            YEAR: 1796 1838
  

• Ans: Jacob Hubner (with an umlaut!)
• It turns out that I couldn't read the spelling on the last word either! Should be Ostrinia nubilalis -- luckily others misspell the word in the same way that I did, so that my searches eventually led me to the right spots...

"http://www.physics.udel.edu/~watson/tlt3/challenge6.html"
Last updated June 3, 1998.
Copyright George Watson, Univ. of Delaware, 1998.