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Identifying Mines:


Miners tend to be restricted to a certain range of host plants and so the identification of a miner is facilitated by correctly identifying these plants.

The shape of the mines (gallery or blotch) and the patterns of the droppings (frass), besides characteristics of the larvae and pupae, can be diagnostic.
 
Lepidoptera tend to make galleries or blotches with single lines of frass, whereas Diptera characteristically make twin trails of frass.

Hymenoptera mines have characteristically more copious and darker frass, when compared to dipetrous mines. several species, including Coleoptera, make cut-outs in the leaf and teh form of these can aid identification.
Coleoptera
Lepidoptera
Hymenoptera
Diptera

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