In order to defend against arthropod herbivores plants employ different defensive strategies including defensive secondary metabolites. The predominant class of secondary defence metabolites in maize is represented by 1,4-benzoxazin-3-ones (BXs). This thesis reports on different aspects of spatiotemporal BX accumulation patterns in maize foliage and how these patterns affect the feeding preferences and performance of different herbivorous insects. It is shown that (I) maize domestication did not lead to a consistent reduction of constitutive BX levels, which is in contrast to the prevailing theory according to which domesticated crops maintain lower defensive capacities than their wild ancestors; (II) within-plant distribution of BX metabolites differentially affects foraging behaviour and performance of two differently well-adapted herbivores of the genus Spodoptera across different spatial scales; and (III) 3-β-D-glucopyranosyl-6-methoxy-2-benzoxazolinone is a novel detoxification product of BXs in Spodoptera spp.