Mung Bean Moth

Mung Bean Moth

Maruca vitrata

Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Ranomafana National Park

In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%

9 Verified sightings at Ranomafana National Park From 2019 to 2026
266 In all 20 parks
May Best month
🌙 Nocturnal When it's spotted

About the Mung Bean Moth

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.

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. 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. 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. Genetically modified cowpeas has been developed to express the cry protein from Bacillus thuringiensis, which is toxic to lepidopteran species, particularly to the pod borer. This technology have... Wikipedia →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Brownsberg Nature Park 🇸🇷 Suriname
~40%
2 Gorongosa National Park 🇲🇿 Mozambique
~30%
3 Kanha National Park 🇮🇳 India
~20%
4 Ranomafana National Park 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~20%
5 Doi Inthanon National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
~20%
6 Main Ridge Forest Reserve 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
~20%
7 Podocarpus National Park 🇪🇨 Ecuador
~20%
8 Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~10%
9 Daintree National Park 🇦🇺 Australia
~10%
10 Sinharaja Forest Reserve 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~10%
11 Serra dos Órgãos National Park 🇧🇷 Brazil
~10%
12 Manu National Park 🇵🇪 Peru
~10%
13 Lamington National Park 🇦🇺 Australia
~10%
14 Kinabalu Park 🇲🇾 Malaysia
~10%
15 Tambopata National Reserve 🇵🇪 Peru
~10%
16 Taroko National Park 🇹🇼 Taiwan
~10%
17 Arenal Volcano National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~10%
18 La Amistad International Park (Panama) 🇵🇦 Panama
~10%
19 Tapantí-Macizo de la Muerte National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
~10%
20 Kruger National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Vijayawada 🇮🇳 India
~30%
2 Kathmandu 🇳🇵 Nepal
~20%
3 Vadodara 🇮🇳 India
~20%
4 Dehradun 🇮🇳 India
~10%
5 Bengaluru 🇮🇳 India
~10%
6 Antananarivo 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~10%
7 Ahmedabad 🇮🇳 India
~10%
8 Dhaka 🇧🇩 Bangladesh
~10%
9 Hyderabad 🇮🇳 India
~10%
10 Prayagraj 🇮🇳 India
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Mung Bean Moth in Ranomafana National Park?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Mung Bean Moth sighting in Ranomafana National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 32nd most-seen of the 68 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Mung Bean Moth in Ranomafana National Park?

May

In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Mung Bean Moth in Ranomafana National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June, August–September and November–April, the lowest months. That is one of Ranomafana National Park's driest months, with about 120 mm of rain against 450 mm in January.

What time of day is best to see a Mung Bean Moth?

Between 7 and 10 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mung Bean Moth sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.

Where does the Mung Bean Moth sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Mung Bean Moth is recorded against all the insects logged in Ranomafana National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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