St. Andrews leaf miner on Ambrosa artemesiifolia SA620 2016 1 - Astrotischeria ambrosiaeella

Moved

Moved from Ophraella.

I think I've figured this out. The pale blotch in the middle is a mine of Astrotischeria ambrosiaeella, as you thought. The wrinkled brown blotches to either side are vacated mines of Leucospilapteryx venustella. A larva of Ophraella communa entered one of them (maybe enlarging the moth larva's exit hole) and spun its cocoon there, but then died without pupating.

… Charley Eiseman, 9 April, 2019 - 6:31am

amazing detective work!

Really cool.

… Tracy S. Feldman, 9 April, 2019 - 8:06pm

Moved

Moved from Unidentified Leaf Mines.

It turned out the DNA sequence was in the Excel file I was sent, so I looked it up on BOLD and it is a 98.92% match for Ophraella communa--which feeds on this host but has externally feeding larvae. Leafmining is not known in this genus, but it seems like this must be an Ophraella nonetheless. I hope you can find these larvae again.

… Charley Eiseman, 27 March, 2018 - 9:29pm

This may be the Tischeriid fr

This may be the Tischeriid from last time--I wasn't sure.

… Tracy S. Feldman, 27 September, 2016 - 10:10pm

No, I have no idea what this is...

The leaf had two brown mines that each had a puffy spherical part in the middle. One of these had a little hole in it, so I opened it up and there was a dead larva inside--I'm pretty sure it's a moth, but the pupal chamber (?) was more like something a weevil would make. I'm not sure if there is something alive in the other mine, but I'll hold onto it just in case.

… Charley Eiseman, 29 September, 2016 - 10:21am

I know there was something al

I know there was something alive in it when I collected it (and when I packaged it to send to you). It could have died in transit.

… Tracy S. Feldman, 29 September, 2016 - 7:10pm

Not a moth after all

I posted some photos of the larva:

There seems to be a consensus that it is a beetle of some sort, but it doesn't belong to any of the usual leaf-mining groups. I hope you can find some more this year.

… Charley Eiseman, 19 February, 2017 - 6:56pm

Update

This larva has been barcoded--it isn't on BOLD yet, so I can't tell what species it might be yet, but it does seem safe to say it's a chrysomelid of some sort, based on where it falls with all my other specimens that have been barcoded.

… Charley Eiseman, 27 March, 2018 - 8:01am