Crops > Fruits & nuts > Dragon fruit > Caterpillar (Crambidae), Dragon fruit, El Salvador



Crops > Fruits & nuts > Dragon fruit > Caterpillar (Crambidae), Dragon fruit, El Salvador

Crops Fruits & nuts Dragon fruit Caterpillar (Crambidae), Dragon fruit, El Salvador

Caterpillar, dragon fruit, El Salvador

February 2013. A caterpillar on dragon fruit sent from El Salvador for identification.

There were several suggestions:

  • Lepidoptera: Pyralidae
  • Maruca, but even though it looks like it, there is need to breed it out
  • Actually, there is only one species of Marucain the Americas: Maruca vitrata(Fabricius). So, if it were not the legume pest, M. vitrata, it would not be a Marucasp. It think it would be safer to treat it as an unidentified Crambidae.

    It was also said that there is a crambid recorded from Hylocereusin Costa Rica: Maracayia chlorisalis(Walker) (Crambidae, Pyraustinae) (http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu/), although I don’t know the appearance of the caterpillar or details of its biology. The adult should be compared with this species.