Bean pod borer - Maruca vitrata - Pest

Bean pod borer (Maruca vitrata) is a pantropical insect pest of leguminous crops like pigeon pea, cowpea, mung bean and soybean found in the tropics of Asia, Africa, North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia & Oceania. Its common names include the maruca pod borer, bean pod borer, soybean pod borer, mung moth, and the legume pod borer. Maruca vitrata prefers to lay its eggs on the flowering bodies of the cowpea plant and the caterpillars do the damage. 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 instars feed on flower peduncles and young stems. A Bean pod borer (Maruca vitrata) sits under a leaf in the forest, seemingly hanging upside down at Tehatta, West Bengal; India on 10/11/2024.