We are pleased to announce a new article on Featured Creatures!

Take a sneak peek with this excerpt from the article: Leucospilapteryx venustella (Clemens) (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) is a small, mostly light brown moth that during its larval stages creates mines in the leaves of plants in the family Asteraceae. Feeding damage by the early instars is characterized by serpentine mines that are expanded by later instars to form tentiform or blotch mines. Leucospilapteryx venustella occurs in North America including Canada (Québec) and the United States. In the US, it is found in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Kentucky (Opler et al. 2013), Illinois (Harrison and Berenbaum 2012), and Florida (R. Diaz unpublished data). The disjunct distribution could be due to inadequate sampling.

ABOVE: Adult resting posture of Leucospilapteryx venustella (Clemens). Photograph by Rodrigo Diaz, University of Florida.

Authors: Rodrigo Diaz, Esteban Tapia, Veronica Manrique, William A. Overholt, Biological Control Research and Containment Laboratory, University of Florida; Donald R. Davis, Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Available at: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/MISC/MOTHS/Leucospilapteryx_venustella.htm

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