Maruca vitrata

Maruca vitrata is a pantropical insect pest of leguminous crops like pigeon pea, cowpea, mung bean and soybean. Its common names include the maruca pod borer, bean pod borer, soybean pod borer, mung moth, and the legume pod borer. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1787.

Bean pod borer
Sinharaja Forest, Viharahena, Sri Lanka
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Crambidae
Genus:	Maruca
Species:	M. vitrata
Binomial name
Maruca vitrata (Fabricius, 1787)
Synonyms
Botys bifenestralis Mabille, 1880 Crochiphora testulalis Geyer, 1832 Hydrocampe aquitilis Guérin-Méneville, [1832] Maruca testulalis (Geyer, 1832) Phalaena vitrata Fabricius, 1787

It can cause losses of 20–80% on the harvests of cowpeas.^[1]

Its feeding sites on plants are flower buds, flowers and young pods. In some cases early instars feed on flower peduncles and young stems.

Methods for control

Biological

Some parasitoids have been shown to serve as a biological control for Maruca vitrata. Parasitoid wasps families include Braconidae and Ichneumonidae; some parasitoid flies in the Tachinidae are also natural enemies of the moth.^[2] M. vitrata prefers to lay its eggs on the flowering bodies of the cowpea plant. Efforts have been made to deter M. vitrata from reproducing on the plant ranging from pesticides to a chemical specifically designed to sterilize the moth.^[3]

Distribution

Maruca vitrata photographed at night, in West Bengal, India.

Worldwide in the tropics. Asia, Africa, North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia & Oceania.^[4]