Leaf mining anyone?

Have you ever seen those winding patterns on your citrus leaves or tomato leaves? Or have you seen a blotch pattern on the leaf? Both are signs of leafminer damage, first being the serpentine leafminer and second is the blotch leafminer.

Tiny female moths lay eggs singly on the underside of immature host leaves in the evenings or early mornings. Larvae emerge from the eggs feeding inside the leaf. The pupal stage is within the mine in a special pupal cell at the leaf margin, under a slight curl of the leaf. Adult moths emerge.

Control methods that work best are biological controls (parasitic wasps) and applications of horticultural oils.

For more information:
http://ipm.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/Citrus%20Leafminer.pub%20(Read-Only).pdf

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/veg/leaf/a_serpentine_leafminer.htm

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/veg/leaf/vegetable_leafminer.htm

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG006

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IN589

http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/ento/pealeafminer.html

Photo Credits:
Kim Gabel UF/IFAS