Caloptilia alnivorella
Encyclopedia
The Alder Leafminer is a moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Gracillariidae
Gracillariidae
Gracillariidae is an important family of insects in the order Lepidoptera and the principal family of leaf miners that includes several economic, horticultural or recently invasive pest species such as the horse-chestnut leaf miner, Cameraria ohridella....

 family. It is known from the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 (Québec, Nova Scotia, Ontario and the Northwest Territories) and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (including Vermont, Utah, Maine, California, Colorado and Michigan).

The wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is about 14 mm. Adults overwinter in the fall and come out in the spring to mate.

The larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e feed on Acer negundo
Acer negundo
Acer negundo is a species of maple native to North America. Box Elder, Boxelder Maple, and Maple Ash are its most common names in the United States...

, Alnus species (including Alnus crispa var. mollis, Alnus glutinosa, Alnus incana, Alnus japonica, Alnus mollis, Alnus rubra, Alnus tenuifolia and Alnus viridis), Betula papyrifera and Quercus garryana. They mine
Leaf miner
Leaf miner is a term used to describe the larvae of many different species of insect which live in and eat the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths , sawflies and flies , though some beetles and wasps also exhibit this behavior.Like Woodboring beetles, leaf...

 the leaves of their host plant. The mine starts as a short, narrow, Phyllocnistis
Phyllocnistis
Phyllocnistis is a genus of moths in the family Gracillariidae.-Adult:Adults of the genus Phyllocnistis are very small moths with wing spans generally not exceeding 5 mm. Both fore- and hindwings are lanceolate and predominantly white. The forewings are marked with yellow to orange, longitudinal...

-like mine on the upperside of the leaf. Later instars form tents by bending the lateral edges and attaching them together. Within the tent, a small fold is made at the edge for a pupation site. The cocoon is found within the fold or on the surface of the leaf.

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