Responses of leaf miners to atypical leaf production patterns

Abstract

Abstract. 1. Larvae of two bivoltine species of leaf‐mining Lepidop‐tera, Acrocercops sp. and Neurobathra strigifinitella (Clem.), restrict feeding to young, second‐flush leaves of their host trees in north Florida. 2. During 1980 and 1981, densities of both species varied greatly among thirty small water oaks (Quercus nigra), as did timing and extent of secondary leaf production. 3. In both years leaf‐miner density at the end of the first generation (mid‐August) was positively correlated with secondary leaf production. 4. Five trees abscised their leaves and reflushed new ones at atypical times of the growing season. When refoliation coincided with emergence of ovipositing adults, Acrocercops sp. and N.strigifinitella densities increased dramatically, indicating that both species are at times limited by availability of young leaves. 5. By staggering termination of diapause these leaf miners can exploit a temporally variable resource. Copyright © 1984, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved