Phyllonorycter manzanita
Encyclopedia
Phyllonorycter manzanita 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 United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (California).

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 Arctostaphylos glauca
Arctostaphylos glauca
Arctostaphylos glauca is a species of manzanita known by the common name bigberry manzanita. It is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in the chaparral and woodland of coastal and inland hills.-Description:...

and Arctostaphylos manzanita
Arctostaphylos manzanita
One of many species of manzanita, Arctostaphylos manzanita has the common names Common manzanita and Whiteleaf manzanita.Arctostaphylos manzanita is endemic to California, where it can be found in the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills...

. 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 has the form of a greyish blotch mine, with the upper epidermis loosened and elevated, but at no stage wrinkled. This leads to a somewhat inflated mine in which most of the parenchyma is consumed.

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