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Photo#284444
Caloptilia leaf roll on Chinese Tallow tree - Caloptilia triadicae

Caloptilia leaf roll on Chinese Tallow tree - Caloptilia triadicae
Honey Island Swamp, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, USA
May 22, 2009
Size: ~1cm
On this leaf you can see another leaf roll, and also a leaf mine made by the internally feeding early instars of the same caterpillar.

Images of this individual: tag all
Caloptilia leaf roll on Chinese Tallow tree - Caloptilia triadicae Caloptilia leaf roll on Chinese Tallow tree - Caloptilia triadicae

Moved
Moved from Caloptilia.

Caloptilia
This is very interesting. Is this known with certainty to be a Caloptilia? If so, then the larval damage of this species is atypical for the genus. First, the internal mine of the early-instar larva of Caloptilia typically is more like a short narrow track enlarging into a blotch, rather than a long wandering serpentine track as shown here. Second, the later-instar larva folds itself into a corner of the leaf, but without cutting it as seen here (a few lep larvae, e.g., Dysodia in Thyrididae, do this, but it would be very unusual for Caloptilia). And third, the resulting shelter is angular and conical, rather than a rounded, scroll-like spiral as shown here (some images of typical Caloptilia larval shelters can be viewed here).

I concur with your assessment of this insect as being a bit of a mystery, and I hope that you will follow up by rearing it and posting images of the adult insect here, once the mystery is solved. Good luck.

 
It is certainly Caloptilia
It is a new species currently being described by Don Davis of the Smithsonian. He is extremely confident that it has been introduced from China, and that he's sorted out its closest related known sibling species (also from China).

We're now trying to nail down the details of its life history and distribution in the US. The project is described in some detail here.

 
Thanks
Thanks very much for the additional information.

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