During diapause, a state of temporarily arrested development, insects require low winter temperatures to suppress their metabolism, conserve energy stores and acquire cold hardiness. A warmer winter could, thus, reduce diapause incidence and duration in many species, prematurely deplete their energy reserves and compromise post-diapause fitness. In this study, we investigated the combined effects of thermal stress and the diapause program on the expression of selected genes involved in antioxidant defense and heat shock response in the European corn borer . By using qRT-PCR, it has been shown that response to chronic heat stress is characterized by raised mRNA levels of and , two important genes of the antioxidant defense system, as well as of and, somewhat, of , two major heat shock response proteins. On the other hand, the expression of , and was discontinuous in the latter part of diapause, or was strongly controlled by the diapause program and refractory to heat stress, as was the case for and , genes encoding two metal storage proteins crucial for metal ion homeostasis. This is the first time that the effects of high winter temperatures have been assessed on cold-hardy diapausing larvae and pupae of this important corn pest.