Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#190467
Leaf Blotch Miner Moth (Gracillariidae) - Antispila cornifoliella

Leaf Blotch Miner Moth (Gracillariidae) - Antispila cornifoliella
Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, USA
June 1, 2008
Size: 5mm
This was on my potatoes. The wing patches look like spots of burnished gold. It's doesn't look so much like it's mining as licking. Maybe not a leaf blotch miner?

Images of this individual: tag all
Leaf Blotch Miner Moth (Gracillariidae) - Antispila cornifoliella Leaf Blotch Miner Moth (Gracillariidae) - Antispila cornifoliella Leaf Blotch Miner Moth (Gracillariidae) - Antispila cornifoliella

Not Gracillariidae
Well, first of all, it would be the larva that would be a leaf miner, not the adult. The adults feed on flower nectar and sometimes take up water from incidental sources such as the surface of your potato leaf, which probably is what this moth was doing when you photographed it.

Also note that, although Family Gracillariidae is known by the common name of leafminer moths, there are many other families of micro-moths, in addition to Gracillariidae, in which the larvae of some or all species are leaf miners.

One such family is Heliozelidae, and this is the family to which your moth belongs. Your moth is a member of the heliozelid genus Antispila. Of the several Antispila species that occur in the eastern USA, your moth most closely resembles Antispila cornifoliella, the larva of which is a leaf miner on dogwood.

For more information on Heliozelidae, see http://microleps.org/Guide/Heliozelidae/index.html (and click on the link for Antispila, for more info on a few of our species in that genus).

Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to activate your changes.