''Macrosaccus morrisella'' (hog peanut moth) 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 ...

. In North America it is known from

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, south and west to

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 ...

and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

is 6–7 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. Th ...

e feed on ''

Amphicarpaea bracteata ''Amphicarpaea bracteata'' (hog-peanut or ground bean) is an annual to perennial vine in the legume family, native to woodland, thickets, and moist slopes in eastern North America. Description Leaves have three leaflets and are held alternate ...

'', ''

Strophostyles leiosperma ''Strophostyles leiosperma'', known as slickseed fuzzybean, or smoothseed / small-flower wildbean is a species of herbaceous, vining legume native to the central to western U.S. It occurs west to Colorado and New Mexico, east to Louisiana, south ...

'', and soybean (''Glycine max''). 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 on the underside of the leaflet. This enlarges to an elongate-oval, whitish blotch which eventually becomes strongly tentiform.

Gallery

File:Macrosaccus_morrisella_mines_on_Amphicarpa_bracteata.JPG, Mines on ''

References

External links

Bug GuidemothphotographersgroupLife cycle images
Lithocolletinae Moths described in 1859 Moths of North America Lepidoptera of Canada Lepidoptera of the United States Leaf miners Taxa named by Asa Fitch {{Lithocolletinae-stub