Cherry Leaf Miner: Appearance, Territory, Damage and Life Cycle

Latin Name: Nepticula Slingerlandella

Appearance: The adult is a tiny, bronzy tan moth with a wavy darker brown to black stripe on the forewings’ outer third. The larva is an annulated caterpillar that is translucent in its early instars but becomes opaquer greenish white when fully developed.

Hosts Plants: Cherry, plum, and prune are all victims of this pest.

Territory: North America

Damage Insect Cause: Larvae dig into the leaf’s underside and mine the tissue under the top epidermis, which becomes virtually translucent. Mines begin pale in color and packed with frass before growing more widespread and blotchier. A pesticide focused at adults and administered once or twice after petal fall can give good control.

Life History and Habits: This insect spends the winter as a pupa in fallen leaves. The adults appear early in the season and deposit eggs on the undersides of leaves at the pink stage of flower bud development. Eggs are transparent and flat. The first three larval instars are known as sap feeders because they feed on spongy soft tissue inside the leaves, causing blotches to appear primarily on the undersurface of the leaves. Later instars, known as tissue feeders, emerge between early and mid-May. These feed under the epidermis on the leaf’s upper surface, forming silken webs to link the mines and give it the distinctive tent-like appearance seen on the upper leaf surface. The larvae of the first generation pupate in the leaf. Three to four generations cross paths every year.