Maize, as the principal fodder crop of the Soviet Union, is universally recognized for its enormous importance to agricultural production. The September Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1953 not only led to a sharp expansion of maize cultivation in its traditional growing regions but also resulted in the introduction of this crop into nearly all areas of intensive agriculture throughout the USSR. All of this, and especially the latter development, required entomologists to devote particular attention to the protection of maize yields. In addition to factors affecting the successful preservation of maize silage and grain harvests, there exists another major adverse factor: the damage caused by insects, the pests of this highly valuable crop, particularly in the more northern cultivation zones that have been developed in recent years. The prospects for further expansion of maize acreage and increased yields in the non-chernozem regions of the Soviet Union make it essential to take pest damage into serious consideration. Without properly organized pest control, insects may become, and in some areas have already become, a major obstacle to achieving high crop yields. For this reason, the authors consider the publication of a handbook on maize pests in the USSR both timely and highly necessary, since a substantial body of information has now accumulated concerning the species composition, distribution, and harmfulness of maize pests. The organization of this handbook follows the principles adopted in previously published Soviet works of the same type. Its distinguishing feature, however, is the greater completeness of the information presented on pests. For the more important species, data are provided on life history, feeding relationships, characteristics of damage, and geographical distribution; wherever possible, the regions in which a given pest causes the greatest damage are also indicated. In addition, an introductory essay precedes the main text, briefly outlining the overall significance of maize pests in different cultivation zones, and a table is included to facilitate the identification of damage symptoms that are difficult to distinguish. Recommended control measures are not listed separately for each species in the main text, because Soviet practice primarily relies on integrated systems of measures directed against complexes of pests rather than against individual species. Accordingly, the handbook contains a special section entitled “Basic Principles of Maize Pest Protection as a Foundation for Developing Regional Systems of Control Measures,” which is devoted specifically to this issue. Relevant information can also generally be found in the references cited for each species. In preparing the handbook, some unevenness in the treatment of different insect groups was unavoidable. This is due to differences in the extent to which the various groups have been studied, as well as substantial differences in both the quantity and character of the available literature. For certain groups, such as grasshoppers and Lepidoptera, extensive literature is available, usually providing the necessary information on the biology, harmfulness, and distribution of the species most important to maize. For other groups, however, or for certain families within otherwise well-studied groups, the literature is extremely limited and may consist only of records indicating that the species has been observed on this crop. To reduce the size of the bibliography for each species, works already included in the Catalogue of Pests published in 1932 by the All-Union Institute of Plant Protection are not repeated here; instead, only the relevant page references in the catalogue are given. In the case of Lepidoptera, because of the large volume of literature associated with each species, works already cited in the Forest Pests handbook published in 1955 by the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR are likewise not repeated. Most publications and reviews cited in the bibliographies of individual species are referred to in abbreviated form. No complete list is provided for the first category of abbreviations, whereas an appropriate list is supplied for the second category. The order of citation follows that adopted in the Forest Pests handbook. The arrangement of insect groups in this handbook follows the same pattern as in previous publications of this type: taxa are presented in descending systematic order, while families and genera are arranged in ascending order, and species within each genus are listed alphabetically. The selection of species included in the handbook is based on records found in published literature or in unpublished materials.