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Photo#855170
Leaf mines on Oak (maybe Quercus virginiana - Neurobathra

Leaf mines on Oak (maybe Quercus virginiana - Neurobathra
El Dorado Park, Los Angeles County, California, USA
October 2, 2013
These mines were extremely numerous on the leaves of an unidentified oak with oblong leaves and short, fat acorns (photo) - possibly non-native Quercus virginiana, a possibility since the tree was found in a park and was almost certainly planted (probably several decades ago). Additionally, the leaves were covered with Andricus quercuslanigera galls which are supposedly very common on this species of oak. Most, if not all, of these mines appear to be abandoned, and most of the mined leaves appear to be somewhat warped as well.

None of the linked photos depict the same leaf mine (rather, they are all different mines on the leaves of the same tree that I believe are all caused by the same species), but I am leaving them linked for ease of comparison; I will gladly link them after the images have been removed.

Images of this individual: tag all
Leaf mines on Oak (maybe Quercus virginiana - Neurobathra Leaf mines on Oak (maybe Quercus virginiana - Neurobathra Leaf mines on Oak (maybe Quercus virginiana - Neurobathra Leaf mines on Oak (maybe Quercus virginiana - Neurobathra

Neurobathra mines in Quercus ?virginiana in California
I'm not very familiar with Neurobathra mines, but this seems to be a better match for the native N. bohartiella than the eastern N. strigifinitella, though the latter is recorded from several oak species (including Q. virginiana) as well as chestnut, whereas N. bohartiella is only known (I believe) from Q. agrifolia. The apparent limited host range of N. bohartiella likely has more to do with the fact that Paul Opler did his dissertation on microlepidoptera associated with Q. agrifolia than anything else (i.e., not much has been published on miners in other California oaks, other than Opler and Davis' 1981 Cameraria paper). There could easily be undescribed Neurobathra species lurking in California too.

 
Excellent, much thanks!
Seems like a perfect match for the description in MWNA... the book also mentions that the moths fly until November so perhaps I may still have a chance at finding one before year end.

Moved

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