Maybe Porphyrosela minuta? - Porphyrosela minuta

Moved

… Charley Eiseman, 15 August, 2015 - 7:02pm

Quite possibly...

Porphyrosela minuta is still not confirmed from North America, and this is the first potential evidence I have seen for it on the west coast, so it would be fantastic if you could collect a bunch of these mines, rear adults, and get them to Don Davis to examine. P. minuta pupates within the mine, so it should be a fairly easy one to rear: since it's in your backyard, you can monitor the mines and wait until the larvae have pupated before collecting them.

… Charley Eiseman, 15 August, 2015 - 6:05pm

How will I tell when these have pupated?

And how do I contact Don Davis?

… Domingo Zungri, 15 August, 2015 - 6:44pm

...

It should be possible to see the change from larva to pupa through the upper leaf epidermis, but if not, the epidermis should become somewhat wrinkled when the larvae pupate.

Don Davis' contact info is here. Might as well wait until you have adult moths before getting in touch.

Your additional photos confirm that this is what I've been calling P. minuta.

… Charley Eiseman, 15 August, 2015 - 7:01pm

I saw what looked like an adult of this species

flying around the clover leaves. It was a cute little thing. Even more intriguingly, I saw what looked like a tiny parasitoid wasp walking over the leaf mines.

… Domingo Zungri, 15 August, 2015 - 8:00pm

Were you able to collect or rear any adults?

I'm going to write something up for publication soon, documenting this species in North America. Some adults have been reared from Oklahoma and North Carolina. I'd be interested to know when you start seeing the mines this year--so far they have only been found from August on.

… Charley Eiseman, 29 February, 2016 - 10:26am

No, sorry about that.

I forgot about following up on this. I saw similar leaf mines at Rosemont High School in Sacramento (where I teach) at the beginning of the school year last September. I'll keep an eye out for these.

… Domingo Zungri, 27 March, 2017 - 12:15am