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Photo#726189
Clover Leaf Miner [Porphyrosela? minuta??] ID Request - Porphyrosela minuta

Clover Leaf Miner [Porphyrosela? minuta??] ID Request - Porphyrosela minuta
Herring Run Watershed, Baltimore City County, Maryland, USA
August 13, 2012
I see user Greg Dodge has already started the discussion about what agent made mines like these in White Clover. I applaud his efforts to rear some as I am in no position to do that at the moment. From what little I could find online suggests the mines look much more like the ones created by the South American cousin (=minuta) of our North American native moth [=desmodiella) in the genus, Porphyrosela. I see that Greg also flirted with the same notion.

[See photo on: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1519-566X2007000400005]

In addition to what has already been discussed regarding these leaf mines I would like to add the following comments/anecdotes:

1. Until this year I do not recall encountering such incredibly conspicuous leaf mines on such a common plant given how much attention I pay to its flowers in my searches for pollinators, especially bees.

2. And factoring in how incredibly common these mines were on the White Clover plants growing only a couple feet from the back door of my house it seems fairly unlikely that I simply overlooked them previously, especially considering I've been photo-documenting what lives in my watershed for the past 6-7 years.

Not sure if any of this helps but I look forward to learning more about what made these.

Any thoughts/comments?

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Clover Leaf Miner [Porphyrosela? minuta??] ID Request - Porphyrosela minuta Clover Leaf Miner [Porphyrosela? minuta??] ID Request - Porphyrosela minuta

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