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Photo#532790
Leaf mine - Stigmella prunifoliella

Leaf mine - Stigmella prunifoliella
Marlton, Burlington County, New Jersey, USA
June 20, 2011
In our flowers, but I haven't asked if it belongs there or not, so it may be a weed.

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Leaf mine - Stigmella prunifoliella Leaf mine - Stigmella prunifoliella Leaf mine - Stigmella prunifoliella Leaf mine - Stigmella prunifoliella Leaf mine - Stigmella prunifoliella

Moved

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

The plant reminds me of black cherry...
The mines I'm not sure about. Did you see any larvae?

 
Agree with black cherry

 
Hmmm...
it is in the flowers right below a big cherry tree (grafted with two different types on each side - I think), and the birds and squirrels eat the cherries and drop the pits down into the yard. Some of the mines end in a puffy area that may still contain a larva. I could cut one open or try to enclose some leaves in a stocking or something?

 
Raising leafminers
If you put whole leaves in a ziploc bag when the mines are far enough along (which they probably are already), that does a good job of retaining the moisture long enough for the larvae to complete development. If this is a species that pupates in the leaves, you can then just wait for adults to emerge. If larvae come out, you may need to provide them with soil or peat for them to burrow into--unless they're something that spins cocoons aboveground. I think it's safe to rule out beetle and sawfly, so the options are either some kind of moth or an agromyzid fly. The scattered grains of excrement in the fourth photo remind me of an agromyzid, but the only agromyzid Prunus miner I know of mines only in peach leaves. That one pupates in the leaf, for whatever it's worth.

 
Done
3 leaves in a double-lock bag with a puff of air to keep it from all sticking together (the rain last night made everything wet and clingy). A lot of the mines end in holes, but maybe we'll get lucky.

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