Mung bean moth
The mung bean moth is a small moth that lives in warm countries all around the world. Its caterpillars are a big problem for farmers. They eat the flowers and young pods of bean plants like cowpeas, mung beans and soybeans.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It can destroy a big part of a cowpea harvest, sometimes most of it.
The mother likes to lay her eggs on cowpea flowers.
Some tiny wasps and flies lay their eggs in its caterpillars, which helps farmers.
It is called a pod borer because its caterpillars bore into bean pods.
Most asked questions about Mung bean moth
?Why is the mung bean moth a pest?
Its caterpillars eat the flowers and young pods of bean crops, so farmers lose part of their harvest.
?Where does the mung bean moth live?
In warm, tropical places on almost every continent.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Maruca vitrata
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1787
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Crambidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Crambidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Maruca pod borer, Bean pod borer, Soybean pod borer, Legume pod borer
Where the facts come from
- Maruca vitrata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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