''Maruca vitrata'' is a pantropical insect pest of leguminous crops like pigeon pea,

cowpea The cowpea (''Vigna unguiculata'') is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus '' Vigna''. Its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall have made it an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few inpu ...

, mung bean and

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean. Soy is a staple crop, the world's most grown legume, and an important animal feed. Soy is a key source o ...

. 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 Johann Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is co ...

in 1787. It can cause losses of 20–80% on the harvests of cowpeas. Its feeding sites on plants are flower buds, flowers and young pods. In some cases early

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'' 'form, likeness') is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, which occurs between each moult (''ecdysis'') until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to ...

s feed on flower peduncles and young stems.

Methods for control

Biological

Some

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

s have been shown to serve as a biological control for ''Maruca vitrata''.

Parasitoid wasp Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran Superfamily (zoology), superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, ...

s families include

Braconidae The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis ...

and

Ichneumonidae The Ichneumonidae, also known as ichneumon wasps, ichneumonid wasps, ichneumonids, or Darwin wasps, are a family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25 ...

; some

flies in the Tachinidae are also natural enemies of the moth. ''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

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are used to control pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all p ...

s to a chemical specifically designed to sterilize the moth.

Distribution

Worldwide in the tropics. Asia, Africa, North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia & Oceania.Pestnet.org
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References

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External links

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Spilomelinae Moths described in 1787 Lepidoptera of Cameroon Moths of Madagascar Lepidoptera of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Moths of Japan Moths of Mauritius Moths of Seychelles Moths of Réunion Moths of Africa Fauna of the Pantropical realm Moths of North America Moths of South America Moths of the Caribbean {{Margaroniini-stub