Cameraria serpentinensis
Encyclopedia
Cameraria serpentinensis is a moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Gracillariidae
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 ohridella....

 family. It is known from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (California).

The length of the forewings is 3.2-4.2 mm.

The larva
Larva
A larva 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...

e feed on Quercus douglasii, Quercus dumosa
Quercus dumosa
Quercus dumosa is a species of plant in the Fagaceae family. This tree goes by the common name Coastal sage scrub oak.-Distribution:Quercus dumosa is found in Mexico and the U.S. state of California. It is threatened by habitat loss...

, Quercus durata
Quercus durata
Quercus durata is an oak endemic to California.Quercus durata var. durata is a strict serpentine endemic that occurs in the Coast Range and northern Sierra Nevadas. It is often a component of serpentine chaparral...

and Quercus × alvordiana. They mine
Leaf miner
Leaf miner is a term used to describe the larvae of many different species of insect which live in and eat the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths , sawflies and flies , though some beetles and wasps also exhibit this behavior.Like Woodboring beetles, leaf...

the leaves of their host plant. The mine is ovoid. The epidermis is opaque, brown. All mines cross the midrib and consume 60%-90% of the leaf surface. The mines are solitary and normally with two folds, but rarely one. These folds are not necessarily parallel to each other. The leaf is bowed up with a sunken area at the middle of leaf.

Etymology

The specific name is derived from the type of soil (i.e., serpentine) on which one of its host occurs.
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