Forest Pests: Insects, Diseases & Other Damage Agents

Csóka, György (2003): Levélaknák és levélaknázók - Leaf mines and leaf miners. Hungarian Forest Research Institute. Erdészeti Turományos Intézet, Agroinform Kiadó, Budapest, 192 pp.

Leaf mining beetles belong to 3 families as jewel beetles (Buprestidae), leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) and weevils (Curculionidae). The head capsule of the larvae of leaf mining beetles is chitinised. Larvae have only thoratic legs or they are legless. The ovipositing females often cover the egg with shiny black coat (see Trachys minutus on page… ). Leaf mining beetle larvae most often make blotch mines, more seldom serpentine or mixed mines. In most cases the larva pupates within the mine in a circular or oval cocoon. In some cases the cocoon includes a small circular disc cut out from the leaf and falls on the ground together with it (see Rhynchaenus fagi on page).

The leaf mining jewel beetles belong to subfamily Trachynae. The species belonging to tribe Trachyni make their mines in leaves of dicotyledons (both herbs and woody plants) and species of tribe Aphanisticini in monocotyledons.

Only a small fragment of the otherwise very species rich family of leaf beetles (ca. 550 species are known from Hungary) mine leaves. Most of the leaf mining species belong to genera Phyllotreta, Dibolia and Zeugophora.

The similarly rich family of weevils (Curculionidae) includes only a few leaf mining species. Most well known representatives are the Rhynchaenus species. Most of these small beetles mines in leaves of woody plants as Alnus, Betula, Fagus, Quercus and Ulmus.

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