""Zea" species are used as food plants by the larvae (caterpillars) of some Lepidoptera species including (in the Americas) the fall armyworm ("Spodoptera frugiperda"), the corn earworm ("Helicoverpa zea"), and the stem borers "Diatraea" and "Chilo"; in the Old World, it is attacked by the double-striped pug, the cutworms heart and club and heart and dart, "Hypercompe indecisa", the rustic shoulder-knot, the setaceous Hebrew character and turnip moths, and the European corn borer ("Ostrinia nubilalis"), among many others.Virtually all populations of teosintes are either threatened or endangered