Larva of an insect that lives in and eats the leaf tissue of plants
Leaf miner damage to a horse chestnut treeLeaf with minor miner damageTomato with leaf miner damageLeaf mines by the moth Phyllocnistis hyperpersea on a Persea borbonia leaf. The red arrow indicates the pupal crypt.Leaf miner trail on a fallen leaf in a Gondwana cool temperate rainforest. Note the initial thin width of the insect trail, becoming wider as the insect grows while it navigates around the leaf. Cryptocarya foveolata from Cobark Park, Barrington Tops, Australia
Like woodboring beetles, leaf miners are protected from many predators and plant defenses by feeding within the tissues of the leaves, selectively eating only the layers that have the least amount of cellulose. When consuming Quercus robur (English oak), they also selectively feed on tissues containing lower levels of tannin, a deterrent chemical produced in great abundance by the tree.[1]
The pattern of the feeding tunnel and the layer of the leaf being mined is often diagnostic of the insect responsible, sometimes even to species level. The mine often contains frass, or droppings, and the pattern of frass deposition, mine shape, and host plant identity are useful to determine the species and instar of the leaf miner. Some mining insects feed in other parts of a plant, such as the surface of a fruit or the petal of a flower.
It has been suggested that some patterns of leaf variegation may be part of a defensive strategy employed by plants to deceive adult leaf miners into thinking that a leaf has already been preyed upon.[2][3]
Leaf mining has been employed as a life strategy by insect larvae since at least the beginning of the Permian period, around 295 million years ago.[4]
Leaf miners are regarded as pests by many farmers and gardeners as they can cause damage to agricultural crops and garden plants, and can be difficult to control with insecticide sprays as they are protected inside the plant's leaves. Spraying the infected plants with spinosad, an organic insecticide, can control some leaf miners. Spinosad does not kill on contact and must be ingested by the leaf miner. Two or three applications may be required in a season. However, this will have harmful ecological effects, especially if sprayed when bees or other beneficial arthropods are present.[5][6]
Leaf miner infection of crops can be reduced or prevented by planting trap crops near the plants to be protected. For example, lambsquarter and columbine will distract leaf miners, drawing them to those plants and therefore reducing the incidence of attack on nearby crops. This is a method of companion planting.[7]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leaf mining.
British leafminers - many of which are distributed widely across Europe.
The leaf and stem mines of British flies and other insects. Includes illustrated keys for identification of mines by host-plant genus and detailed descriptions of over 900 species along with their distribution in Great Britain and Northern Ireland and elsewhere.
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