The susceptibilitity of newly hatched larvae of laboratory-adapted and field-collected populations of the Southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella (Dyar) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), to a Bacillus thuringiensis protein (Cry1Ab) was examined using a larval feeding bioassay. D grandiosella populations were collected from five states: Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Tennessee and Kentucky. Using larval mortality as the end-point of the bioassay, the magnitude of differences in the susceptibility of the laboratory-adapted and the field-collected populations to Cry1Ab protein varied from one to 46 times depending on the time of observation and the standard of comparison (LC50 or LC95). However, significant differences in susceptibility to Cry1Ab protein among these populations were not detected when the comparisons were based on growth inhibition (EC50 or EC95); the magnitude of differences was less than fourfold. Either using larval mortality or larval growth inhibition, the results indicated that the field-collected populations of D grandiosella were susceptible to Cry1Ac, and differences in susceptibility may reflect natural variation among populations. The bioassay using larval growth inhibition offers advantages over that using larval mortality, including giving more accurate representation of the toxicological effects of the toxin.