''Eucosmophora manilkarae'' 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 ...

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, ''Camerar ...

. It is known from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

in the United States. The length of the forewings is 3.3–3.5 mm for males and 3–4 mm for females.Biology and systematics of the neotropical leafminer genus Eucosmophora (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae)
/ref> 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. Th ...

e feed on '' Bumelia celastrina'' and ''

Manilkara bahamensis ''Manilkara'' is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae. They are widespread in tropical and semitropical locations, in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, as well as various islands in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. ...

''. 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. On ''Manilkara bahamensis'', the mines occur on the underside of young, yellow-green, still expanding leaves. The serpentine early track often has a reddish orange

frass Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Definition and etymology ''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the G ...

stain that occasionally zigzags from side to side. The mine tends to be dirty brown and rather opaque. Often, there are numerous small tears in the mine that may or may not be sealed over by the larva with a thin webbing of silk. The last two instars mine deeply into the parenchyma, causing discoloration which is visible from above. Mature mines may have an abundance of minute creasing over the lower leaf surface. On ''Bumelia celastrina'', the mine begins as a narrow track that follows a leaf edge or snakes about the lamina. This portion of mine appears almost free of frass except for some subtle staining on the outer mine surface. By the second instar, the mine, often with a dark central channel stained by frass, may repeatedly cross itself, especially in smaller leaves. In the third instar the mine is enlarged into a blotch that occupies most of the lamina. The dark, tacky frass that adheres to the outer mine surface renders most of the mine opaque. In the last two instars, silk is used to draw the edges of the mine together. Many upper surface mines abort possibly because the larva is unable to draw the leaf edges upward. In lower surface mines the leaf tip is drawn back toward the petiole, lower right leaf. So much silk may be deposited within the mine that the lower leaf surface appears white.

Etymology

The specific name is derived from the generic name, ''

Manilkara ''Manilkara'' is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae. They are widespread in tropical and semitropical locations, in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, as well as various islands in the Pacific and in the Caribbea ...

'', one of two principal larval hosts.

References

Acrocercopinae Moths described in 2005 {{Acrocercopinae-stub