• Leafminer flies

Classification of the organism

Common name	Order/Family	Scientific name	Plants/attacked parts	Localization
Leafminer		Liriomyza spp.	Vegetables and ornamental plants/Leaves	Mauritius

Description

The adult is a small fly (1 to 3 mm long). The head is yellow, the thorax and the abdomen blackish grey and the legs bright yellow. The eggs are very small (0,2 x 0,1 mm), of cream colour, translucent at the beginning. The eggs are partially buried under the epidermis of the leaves. The larva is colourless at birth and measures 0,5 mm long. It can reach 3 mm at the final stage of development and is of bright yellow colour.

Description of the damages

This pest is very polyphage. In Mauritius, it has been identified on several cultivated host-plants such as tomatoes, pepper, water melon, onion, potato and garden peas. The insect has also been observed on weeds (herbe Villebague, liane poc-poc, lastron etc...) and ,ornamental plants (dahlia, gerbera, balsamine, zinnia etc...). The larva digs galleries in the leaves and spends there the three larva stages of its cycle. A the end of its growth, it makes an opening in the superior epidermis, gets away and becomes pupa in the ground. In case of massive attacks, the upas can stay on the leaves. The length and the number of galleries vary according to the number of eggs deposited on the leaf as well as the duration of the attack. The damages can go up to complete defoliation of the attacked plant.

Country of edition

Maurice

Author/Institution

AREU

Validated by:

En attente de révision.

Control methods

Control methods against leaf miner flies in Mauritius