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Photo#1131769
Bucculatrix mines and larvae on birch - Bucculatrix

Bucculatrix mines and larvae on birch - Bucculatrix
Fredericton, York County, New Brunswick, Canada
September 1, 2015
This leaf is from the white birch in my front yard. I count 8, maybe 10 mines, and 8 larvae on the underside. No evidence of widespread skeletonizing (yet), which makes me believe that this is not B. canadensisella but another species. This group of images shows the whole leaf upperside and underside, and some of the larvae.

Images of this individual: tag all
Bucculatrix mines and larvae on birch - Bucculatrix Bucculatrix mines and larvae on birch - Bucculatrix Bucculatrix mines and larvae on birch - Bucculatrix

Moved
Moved from Bucculatrix.

Moved
Moved from Unidentified Leaf Mines.

You may well be right, but since this isn't entirely consistent with published descriptions, I prefer to leave this at genus level until you can rear adults to confirm the ID.

Bucculatrix canadensisella - 0560 Birch Skeletonizer Moth
I'm trying to convince you guys at BugGuide to accept images of mines on birch leaves as those of the Birch Skeletonizer Moth; so far there are no images of mines.

See the Birding New Brunswick discussion HERE.

This year seems to be a heavy year, as I have seen them frequently on both species, including the white birch in my front yard. I didn't see any at all last year (2014).

There is an outside chance that Bucculatrix coronatella (#0559) is also present, but this species infests Betula nigra, Black Birch, which we don't have. Coronatella is not listed in the CRC list for the Maritime Ecozone, but MPG places it in Maine.

A search of the definitive reference for the genus Bucculatrix (Braun 1963) reveals that only two species are found on birch (canadensisella and coronatella), so I am concluding that our species is the former.

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