The complex pattern of mines made by leafminers is postulated to hinder the host-searching behaviour of parasitoids, and if this is true, parasitoids should have evolved strategies of searching mines in a way that will achieve the highest efficiency. We investigated the possible deterrent effect of mine pattern complexity on a parasitoid searching for a host within a patch, and the searching be...

Liriomyza leafminers (Diptera: Agromyzidae) are cosmopolitan, polyphagous pests of horticultural plants and many are resistant to insecticides. Producers in South Texas rely on insecticides as the primary management tool for leafminers, and several compounds are available. The objective of this study is to address the efficacy of these compounds for controlling Liriomyza while minimizing their ...

Japanagromyza sasakawai sp. n. is described from the Brazilian Amazon, based on the male, female, third instar larva and puparium. This species is a leaf-miner of Terminalia catappa L. (Combretaceae), which is an introduced plant from the Old World tropics used in Brazil as an ornamental. The male aedeagus of J. sasakawai sp. n. differs from other species mainly in having the mesophallus covere...

BACKGROUND The asparagus miner is a putative vector of Fusarium spp., which have been implicated in globally declining asparagus production. Growers currently apply broad-spectrum insecticides for the asparagus miner, but lack management guidelines for adequately controlling the pest. Our aims were (1) to determine the lower developmental threshold of the asparagus miner, (2) develop and valida...

The leafmining ßyLiriomyza trifolii (Burgess) (Diptera: Agromyzidae) is an important pest of vegetable and cut-ßower crops. In recent decades, this species has become invasive, spreading from the Americas to the rest of the world. Despite substantial losses caused by Liriomyza leafminers, the systematics of these ßies has remained poorly understood because of their small size and morphological ...

Herbivorous insects are characterized by a great diversity of host plant associations, yet, the processes driving host range evolution are not fully understood. When herbivores encounter a novel host, local selection pressures are expected to shape traits that mediate plant–insect interactions. I show that a leafmining fly, Amauromyza flavifrons (Meigen) (Diptera: Agromyzidae), suffers a profou...