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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » "Symphyta" - Sawflies, Horntails, and Wood Wasps » Common Sawflies (Tenthredinidae) » Heterarthrinae » Fenusini » Profenusa » Amber-marked Birch Leaf Miner (Profenusa thomsoni)

Species Profenusa thomsoni - Amber-marked Birch Leaf Miner

Classification · Other Common Names · Explanation of Names · Size · Range · Season · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · Internet References · Works Cited

Birch Leafminer? - 2 - Profenusa thomsoni

Trumpet mine on birch sapling - Profenusa thomsoni

Bog Birch, opened blotch leaf mine - Profenusa thomsoni

Profenusa thomsoni - Amber-marked Birch Leaf Miner - Profenusa thomsoni

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon ("Symphyta" - Sawflies, Horntails, and Wood Wasps)

Family Tenthredinidae (Common Sawflies)

Subfamily Heterarthrinae

Tribe Fenusini

Genus Profenusa

Species thomsoni (Amber-marked Birch Leaf Miner)

Other Common Names

Birch Leaf Miner

Explanation of Names

Profenusa thomsoni (Konow 1886)

Size

4 mm(1)

Range

native to, and widespread across the Palaearctic(2), adventive in NA and now transcontinental in the north(1)

Season

Late May to Jul, may continue to emerge late into Aug(1)

Food

hosts: primarily, Betulaceae, common on a number of birch species (Betula)(1)

Life Cycle

Adults lay eggs in the leaf tissues. The larvae mine the leaves, forming light-colored blotch mines. Up to 40 larvae were found in a single mine. When all the leaf tissue is mined, regardless of the larvae age, they vacate the mine and drop to the ground. Only the latter part of the 5th instar enter the soil the survive.(3)

Remarks

Introduced to NA early 1900s; spread westward, reached AB by 1970, reached Anchorage, AK ca. 1996

Internet References

Species pages: anon. [AB](1) | Soper et al. (2009) | Ellis (2007) (Europe)(4) | Edmunds (2007) (UK)(5) | Pitkin et al. (2007-) (UK)(6)

Works Cited

1.	University of Alberta Entomology Collection

2.	Keys to the insects of the European part of the USSR. Vol. 3. Hymenoptera. Part 6. Zhelokhovtsev A.N., Tobias V.I., Kozlov M.A. 1993. Keys to the Fauna of the USSR 158: 1-432.

3.	Eastern Forest Insects Whiteford L. Baker. 1972. U.S. Department of Agriculture · Forest Service.

4.	Ellis W.N. (2007-) Leafminers of Europe

5.	British leafminers

6.	Pitkin B., Ellis W., Plant C., Edmunds R. (2007-) The leaf and stem mines of British flies and other insects

Contributed by Ken Schneider on 11 December, 2008 - 2:37pm
Additional contributions by v belov, Marci Hess
Last updated 4 September, 2023 - 11:57am

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