Cabbage Leafminer: Appearance, Territory, Damage and Life Cycle

Latin Name: Liriomyza Brassicae

Appearances: Serpentine leafminer maggots’ tunnel between the epidermal layers of beet, cabbage, radish, spinach, and turnip leaves, producing narrow, meandering mines. Larvae are maggots that are pale green in color. Symptoms and Consequences: Blisters, blotchy mines, and serpentine tunnels may occur as a result of leafminer activity.

Host Plants: Herbaceous brassicas (Cruciferae or Brassicae) and plants with comparable Sulphur compounds are home to the cabbage leafminer. It can be found on several garden plants, watercress, and weeds in New Zealand. Peas, Pisum sativum, are a common host plant in various nations (Leguminosae).

Territory: Widespread. South and Southeast Asia, Africa, North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Oceania are just a few of the regions covered. Australia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Guam, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Papua New Guinea have all reported it.

Damage Caused: In Fiji, the leafminer is quite widespread on Chinese cabbage and pea, however the crop’s economic impact is unknown. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese broccoli, flowering white cabbage, and other cruciferous crops are regarded a major pest in Hawaii. The impact may be bigger elsewhere, albeit the details are lacking. Mines may lower the market value of ornamentals. On cabbages, the damage is mostly limited to the outer leaves, which are discarded before sale, resulting in a low loss. There is a chance that young plants and seedlings will be badly harmed or perhaps killed, resulting in a higher loss than plants growing in the field.

Life Cycle and Habits: The damage is caused by the fly larvae creating uneven, pale-colored tunnels in the leaves. Many mines can be found on a single leaf, with some mines encompassing the entire blade. The eggs are small and are placed singly beneath the epidermis on both sides of the leaves. Each leaf has a large number of eggs deposited on it. The mines on peas begin on the lower leaves and progress upwards with the crop’s age until all of the leaves are afflicted.

The larva is 2.5 mm long when completely grown. It creates a serpentine-like mine that gradually widens and becomes more evident on the leaf’s surface. In the middle of the mine, there is normally a dark green line of feces. Before reaching maturity, the maggot changes its skin three times. The mature larva emerges from the mine and falls to the ground, where it develops into a round, shiny, brown puparium. The pupa is inside, protected by the maggot’s rigid final skin.