Australian Leaf Miners

This project has been created as a space for Australian records of leaf miners to be collated. This project is curated by Ying Luo, an Australian researcher looking to understand more about leaf miners in Australia.

What is a leaf miner? Leaf mining insects are those whose larvae spend part or all of their development feeding internally in leaves. The larvae spend all or part of their development feeding within a leaf and creating trails or mines that are visible externally on the surface of the leaf. Leaf-mining behaviour has been recorded in larvae from insects in the orders of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera. Feel free to include observations of stem and other mines too.

Uploading Leaf Mine Records

• Include an identification for the plant (TIP: You can upload your plant observation and leaf mine observation separately and link your observations using Similar Observation Set)
• If you don't know what plant it was hosted on, you can put "Kingdom: Plantae"
• Include photos of both sides of the leaf, and if possible, include a back lit photo as well.

Rearing Leaf Mines Out
If you want to try rear out some leaf miners you can read this post by Charley Eiseman for tips on rearing leaf miners.

Once reared out you can again link the specimen to the first leaf mine record using the "Similar Observation Set" Observation Field.

Posting Adult Insects
This project will allow submissions of records of confirmed insects rear from leaf mines, but not un-associated adult leaf mining insects. This is because it is easy to search iNat for any identified species.

Please only upload images of adult insects if you have reared them out from a leaf mine, AND you have already uploaded an image of the mine. Upload the leaf mine and adult separately, and link them using the Similar Observation Set field.

Other Leaf mining Links and Resources
Target Australian Host Plants For Leaf Miner Research
Leafminers of North America Project

NOTE: To collect leaves you must have a relevant permit for your state for the collection of plant specimens or permission from the landowners of private property. less ↑