Marmara smilacisella

Marmara smilacisella
Marmara smilacisella
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Gracillariidae
Genus: Marmara
Species: M. smilacisella
Binomial name
Marmara smilacisella
(Chambers, 1875)
Synonyms
  • Phyllocnistis smilacisella Chambers, 1875
  • Marmara similiacicella Dyar, [1903]
  • Marmara smilaciella Meyrick, 1912

Marmara smilacisella is a moth of the Gracillariidae family. It is known from the United States (Kentucky and Ohio south to Florida and Texas).[1]

The larvae feed on Smilax glabra, Smilax glauca and Smilax hispida. They mine the upper side of the leaves, making a silvery white narrow mine. There is a narrow central line of frass. The mines wind about over the leaf, crossing and recrossing and in smaller leaves involving almost the whole upper surface. At maturity, the larvae turn bright red, emerge from the mine, and, in a fold under the edge of the leaf, spin yellowish white coooons to pupate.

References

  1. ^ Global Taxonomic Database of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera)
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