author(s)
Anil Kumar Cholla, Pradyumn Kumar, Subhash Chander, Abhijit Kumar Das, Suby SB, Sunil Chandra Dubey and JC Sekhar

abstract
Damage parameters viz., leaf injury rating (LIR), dead hearts (DH, %), stem tunnelling (ST,%) and exit holes per plant as well as data on plant morphological traits such as leaf glossiness, seedling vigour, plant height, number of nodes, leaf length and leaf width were noticed to identify key damage parameters and plant morphological traits associated with Chilo partellus resistance in 30 maize genotypes. Principal component analysis (PCA) identified the stem tunnelling, deadhearts and leaf injury rating as the most important traits with regard to genotypic response to stem borer resistance/susceptibility. Eleven genotypes, WNZPBTL 2, P 72 CL BRASIL 1177-2-2-1, CM-501, HKI-170 (1+2+3), HKI-488, CM-202, AEB (Y) C5 F43-1, YCY 2-2-4-1, HKI-193-1, PFSR R3-7 and HK I-PC-5 were found to be source germplasm for stem borer resistance. Correlation study between morphological traits and damage parameters revealed negative association of seedling vigour with leaf injury rating and deadheart, plant height with leaf injury rating, and photosynthetic area (leaf width) with deadheart.