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.

Not even the most respected experts are able to tell how many species live on our planet. It is very hard even to determine the number of species that have been described so far. But it can be said that ca. half of the species (700,000 according to some estimates) that have been described so far belong to either green plants or insects feeding on green plants. These plant-eating insects are amazingly diverse in their size, forms, life history and the ways they consume the plants. They use refined methods and clever tricks to utilize the plant tissues more efficiently and to avoid the negative impact deriving from their diet. Of course the plants' counter measures are no less efficient. The plants - earlier believed to be helpless victims of insects - also do their best to make the life of herbivore insects harder. This colourful theatre of war retains many mysteries for those who search after its secrets.

Leaf mining is one of the many specialised feeding forms of herbivorous insects. On our walks in meadows or forests if we keep our eyes open we can often see tunnels of different shapes and sizes on leaves of herbs and woody plants. Sometimes even the larva in the tunnel is visible in transparent light. The leaf mine is a kind of cave inside the leaf tissues made by the leaf miner's larva. The larva both lives and feeds inside this hole, leaving the epidermis of the leaf intact.

According to the fossil record, the first mines made by lepidopterans appeared in late Jurassic, ca. 150 millions years ago. Their number showed a steep increase in the Cretaceous, probably correlated with the radiation of angiosperms.

In the last few decades leaf miners have become popular study organisms. Several ecological and evolutionary hypothesis have been tested on them, the attention being spent on them exceeding their economical importance.

The aim of this small book - with its images and the short text supplementing them - is to give a brief introduction to the interesting and diverse world of leaf miners and to convince the Reader that they have deserved the special attention of the experts.

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