Mystery mine on Pacific hound's tongue (Adelinia grande)

This is the first in what I expect to be a series of posts highlighting commonly observed mystery leaf mines. My hope is that people will keep an eye out for them and collect any occupied ones so that adult insects can be reared and we can put names to them. You can click on any of the images below to get to the original observations. These are all mines of some unknown agromyzid fly on Pacific hound's tongue (Adelinia grandis); they have been found in several California counties. Empty mines have been found as early as March 9; no one has yet found ones that clearly have larvae inside, although some photos taken in late May show small and fresh-looking mines, so there may be two generations per year.

photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @sea-kangaroo, San Mateo Co., CA, 3/9/2018, 5/29/2019, 6/10/2020


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @temminicki, San Mateo Co., CA, 3/11/2018


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @merav, Santa Clara Co., CA, 3/14/2021


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @debkccb, San Mateo Co., CA, 3/15/2020


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @u_phantasticus, San Mateo Co., CA, 3/20/2020


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @chloe_and_trevor, Marin Co., CA, 3/31/2021, 4/22/2021


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @cmaci, San Mateo Co., CA, 4/4/2020


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @zufi, San Mateo Co., CA, 4/9/2021


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @selwynq, San Mateo Co., CA, 4/11/2021


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @elonicera, Santa Clara Co., CA, 4/14/2021


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @melanopygus, Marin Co., CA, 4/29/2018


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @leslie_flint, San Mateo Co., CA, 4/30/2021, 5/4/2020


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @gyrrlfalcon, San Mateo Co., CA, 4/16/2021, 5/4/2020, 6/5/2020


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @leptonia, Santa Cruz Co., CA, 5/10/2017


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @owicki, Santa Clara Co., CA, 5/11/2020


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @kzias, San Mateo Co., CA, 5/24/2020


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @hoechsle, Santa Cruz Co., CA, 5/30/2019


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @calloohcallay, San Mateo Co., CA, 5/30/2020


Update, 3/11/2022: People have found some occupied mines in 2022!


photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande @gina-barton, Santa Clara Co., CA, 3/5/2022


Having seen this puparium that @nancyasquith got from one of these mines (Santa Clara Co., CA, 3/10/2022), I'm now reasonably sure this is an Agromyza species.

photo of agromyzid mine on a leaf of Adelinia grande

Posted on January 31, 2022 03:12 AM by ceiseman ceiseman

Comments

Thanks for this post, Charley, and I look forward to others - I'll keep my eyes peeled! :)

Posted by kschnei about 2 years ago

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing! You never know what you'll discover out there! :)

Posted by gina-barton about 2 years ago

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