Aspilanta voraginella

Adults are externally very similar to Aspilanta oinophylla but can be distinguished by dark brown scales on the head. The leaf mine is a white or yellowish blotch lacking any linear portion, often conjoined with other mines on the same leaf. Frass is greenish black and placed irregularly near the center of the mine.

Associated with riparian and canyon environments where the host plant Vitis arizonica (Arizona grape) grows.

United States: Arizona, Texas, and Utah.

Larvae feed on leaf tissue of Vitis arizonica.

• Vitis arizonica - larval food plantArizona grape, a native North American grape species

Eggs are laid on host plant leaves. Larvae are gregarious leaf miners that feed on leaf tissue. When mature, larvae cut out a broadly elliptical, somewhat lopsided case from the leaf mine for pupation. Pupation occurs within this shield-like case.

Larvae are gregarious, with multiple individuals often mining the same leaf and their mines frequently conjoined. The leaf mine is a blotch type without a linear portion.

Leaf miner on native grape species. Serves as host to parasitoid wasps including Braconidae (Microgastrinae), Eulophidae, and Pediobius.

• Aspilanta oinophyllaExternally very similar adults; distinguished by dark brown head scales in A. voraginella versus different head scaling in A. oinophylla. A. oinophylla has become invasive on cultivated grapevine in Italy, while A. voraginella remains restricted to native Vitis arizonica in North America.

• leafminer
• Vitaceae
• microlepidoptera
• Nearctic
• gregarious larvae

• BugGuide
• Wikipedia
• GBIF taxonomy match
• iNaturalist taxon
• Catalogue of Life
• Splitting the leafmining shield-bearer moth genus Antispila Hübner (Lepidoptera, Heliozelidae): North American species with reduced venation placed in Aspilanta new genus, with a review of heliozelid morphology