''Macrosaccus gliricidius'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Gracillariidae Gracillariidae is an important family of insects in the order Lepidoptera and the principal family of leaf miners that includes several economic, horticultural or recently invasive pest species such as the horse-chestnut leaf miner, ''Cameraria ...

. It is known from Central America (such as

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

) and the West Indies (such as

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

). The length of the forewings is 2.2–2.6 mm. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e feed on ''

Gliricidia sepium ''Gliricidia sepium'', often simply referred to as its genus name ''Gliricidia'', is a medium size leguminous tree belonging to the family Fabaceae. Common names include quickstick, ''mata ratón''; ''cacao de nance'', ''cachanance''; ''balo'' i ...

''. They

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

the leaves of their host plant. The mine begins as an elongate serpentine track which abruptly enlarges to an elongate-oval, whitish blotch located on either the upper or lower side of the leaflet. When present on the under side, the blotch mines usually develop along the midrib. Only the upper side blotch mines occurred directly on top of the midrib.

Etymology

The species name is derived from the generic name of its host, ''

Gliricidia ''Gliricidia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae and tribe Robinieae. Its native range is Mexico to Peru, but ''Gliricidia sepium'' has been widely introduced to other tropical zones. The species ''G. sepium'' is a sm ...

''.

Gallery

File:Macrosaccus_gliricidius_adaxial_blotch_mine.JPG, Blotch mine File:Macrosaccus_gliricidius_damage.JPG, Damage File:Macrosaccus_gliricidius_late_instar_tissue_feeding_larva.JPG, Tissue feeding

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

File:Macrosaccus_gliricidius_open_blotch_mine_with_single_cocoon.JPG, Open blotch mine with single cocoon File:Macrosaccus_gliricidius_pupa_with_cocoon_removed.JPG, Pupa with cocoon removed

References

Lithocolletinae {{Lithocolletinae-stub Moths of Central America Moths described in 2011 Taxa named by Donald R. Davis (entomologist) Leaf miners