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Charley Eiseman

@ceiseman.bsky.social
1.4K followers 125 following 273 posts

Freelance naturalist, especially into leafminers, sawfly larvae, and other underappreciated herbivorous insects | bugtracks.wordpress.com

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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
To follow up on a question @colinpurrington.bsky.social asked me several years ago, here are five different leafminers in a single leaf! bugtracks.wordpress.com/2026/09/18/a...
bugtracks.wordpress.com
A New Record
Greetings from Aton Forest! I came here to present a slideshow this afternoon about the leafminers of Aton Forest, but I arrived earlier in the day so I could spend a few hours looking for, well, l…
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Arizona plant question: Can anyone tell me for sure whether this is Gutierrezia sarothrae or Gymnosperma glutinosum? www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
gumhead (Gymnosperma glutinosum)
gumhead from Cochise County, AZ, USA on March 2, 2017 at 03:17 PM by Charley Eiseman
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Another new moth species for North America (Phyllocnistis occidentalis Eiseman & van Nieukerken), and the identity of the grape leafminer that has been spreading across Europe for the past 30 years is clarified (P. vitifoliella, not P. vitegenella!).
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Grappling with Grape Leafminers
I don’t remember when I first became aware of reports that the grape (Vitaceae: Vitis) leafminer Phyllocnistis vitegenella (Gracillariidae) had been introduced in Europe. There is no mention …
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
My latest couple of new moth species:
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Another two new leaf-mining moth species
I just discovered that my third paper in the open-access journal Insecta Mundi was published a few days ago: Eiseman, Charles S. and Jean-François Landry. 2026. Two new species of Keiferia Busck (L…
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Stop everything! Ray Gagne has just finished the second edition of "The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America" and it's freely available here: zenodo.org/records/2137...
zenodo.org
The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America
This revision of The Plant-Feeding Gall Midges of North America, originally published in 1989, began as soon as the earlier book was in press. Since then, more than half again as many records of plant...
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Lupine leafminers wanted!
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Looking for Lupine Leafminers
The other day, Sonja Scheffer wrote to invite me to collaborate on a paper she’s working on involving agromyzid flies that mine leaves of lupines (Fabaceae: Lupinus spp.). It will, among othe…
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
@scottpegan.bsky.social Weird thing on a Q. virginiana branch for your consideration: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Insects (Class Insecta)
Insects from Riverview, FL, USA on June 21, 2026 at 06:42 AM by Ryan Callahan
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
These purplish midribs of smooth aster (Symphyotrichum laeve) leaves are caused by mining of Ophiomyia astericosta (Agromyzidae), a species I named with Owen Lonsdale earlier this year. Never noticed them in my yard until just now!
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Miscellany from the yard and kitchen
Just before Julia and Ayla left for Ohio a week ago today, Ayla (now three years old) picked a bunch of (mostly) sweet William flowers (Caryophyllaceae: Dianthus barbatus), which have been sitting …
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Warblers feasting on leaf-mining sawfly larvae: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Northern Parula (Setophaga americana)
Northern Parula from Manhattan, New York, NY, USA on May 11, 2026 at 05:30 PM by David Jeffrey Ringer. raiding leafmines of Profenusa canadensis on hawthorn (images in reverse chronological order)
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
I just put together a wish list of North American Phyllocnistis leaf mines. I'm hoping for larvae from each of them for DNA barcoding, and eventually I'll need reared adult specimens to describe the ones that are new species (which is probably most of them): www.inaturalist.org/projects/lea...
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
I think this is the first time I've seen a species I named turn up on a federally Threatened plant: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Phytomyza verbenae
Phytomyza verbenae in May 2026 by Ryan Donnelly. Host Verbena californica (CRPR 1B.1, Federally Threatened, State Threatened)
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Can anyone tell me what is the surname in the Indonesian name "Tjoa Tjien Mo"? I've found examples of all three being interpreted as the surname.
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Always fun to see species I named turn up on @inaturalist.bsky.social, and even more so when people ID them without my help! Phytomyza nemophilae was originally described from specimens @cosmopterix.bsky.social reared from Nemophila, and has since been reared... www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Phytomyza nemophilae
Phytomyza nemophilae from Building 3, Portland, OR 97229, USA on May 4, 2026 at 02:00 PM by Tser
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
First leafminer I've seen this year! This is a larva of Aulagromyza cornigera (Agromyzidae) almost done mining a leaf of honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea) in Massachusetts. Probably tomorrow it will drop to the ground and pupate, emerging as an adult next April. #FlyWeek
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Happy #FlyWeek! If you're in northeastern North America, please keep an eye out for this mystery leafminer on hackberry--an Agromyza species that has never been reared. Larvae are present only in spring, and rearing adults will require keeping puparia happy until next spring.
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Anybody know about these square eggs in India? www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Winged and Once-winged Insects (Subclass Pterygota)
Winged and Once-winged Insects from Ranga Reddy, IN-TG, IN on June 6, 2025 at 07:01 AM by Pavansai. Observed this on a bark of a tree
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Reposted by Charley Eiseman
Colin Purrington @colinpurrington.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Profile of @ceiseman.bsky.social's leafminer work. #inaturalist #leafminers #insects #moths #flies #sawflies #beetles #entomology www.inaturalist.org/blog/124811
inaturalist.org
Identifier Profile: @ceiseman
This is the twenty-ninth entry in an ongoing series profiling the amazing identifiers of iNaturalist. An iNaturalist observation records an encounter between an observer and an organism or recent evid...
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
In case anyone's keeping track (I had lost track until just now), I've now helped name 115 new insect species, 95 of them being agromyzid flies described with Owen Lonsdale. You can find them all here: bugtracks.wordpress.com/taxonomy/
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Taxonomy
Although I have essentially no formal entomological training, I have been involved in the describing and naming of many new insect species with various taxonomist collaborators, and I have recently…
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Reposted by Charley Eiseman
Jim Hayden @jeh8i8.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
This greenbriar leafminer, Marmara smilacisella, adorned its cocoon with clusters of pearlescent bubbles. I wish my holiday decorations were so neat!
Cocoon of a leaf-mining moth ornamented with bubbles excreted by the caterpillar
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Reposted by Charley Eiseman
Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 28/01/2026
I learned this on the podcast Criminal: there was a court case about moon rock theft called “United States vs. One Lucite Ball Containing Lunar Material (One Moon Rock) and One Ten Inch By Fourteen Inch Wooden Plaque”. The lucite ball, truly the US' most fearsome enemy www.forbes.com/2010/07/08/l...
forbes.com
United States Vs. One Moon Rock
Having a moon rock may not be illegal, but getting one almost certainly is.
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
The "October 2025" journal issue just showed up in my mailbox, so I guess my new species name is validly published at this point, even though @bioone.bsky.social still hasn't gotten its act together: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Telamoptilia malvavisci
Telamoptilia malvavisci from 1246 Lakeside Blvd, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA on February 22, 2021 at 06:47 PM by David Jeffrey Ringer. Telamoptilia cf. hibiscivora per Charley Eiseman. Reared from a m...
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Finally published! "Thirty-three new species of Agromyzidae (Diptera) from the United States and Canada, with new host and distribution records for 154 additional species." Now I've got some updating to do on BugGuide and iNaturalist...
mapress.com
Thirty-three new species of Agromyzidae (Diptera) from the United States and Canada, with new host and distribution records for 154 additional species | Zootaxa
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Here's a tiny trichogrammatid wasp stuck to a gall midge larva, which is pretty tiny itself... Check out my blog post for more about this midge species (I'm afraid I don't have much to say about how the wasp came to be stuck to it).
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Sticktoitiveness
Thanks to the fact that I have a searchable email account, and never delete any emails, I was able to quickly reconstruct this timeline just now: On August 1, 2007, I got a reply from Mark Allison,…
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Life under a lettuce leaf
Ever since I found Marmara leaf mines on the undersides of tall blue lettuce (Asteraceae: Lactuca biennis) leaves in my yard five years ago (see this post, #164), I’ve been peeking under leav…
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Reposted by Charley Eiseman
Emily May @emtomology.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
New study: backyard mosquito sprays lead to insecticide levels high enough to kill pollinators, and sprays travel easily into neighboring yards. stacksjournal.org/article/ande...
stacksjournal.org
An initial assessment of risk to pollinators from mosquito control in residential settings - Stacks Journal
Peer-reviewed research - An initial assessment of risk to pollinators from mosquito control in residential settings
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
What do we think, does that say "N.J." at the top? No other labels on this moth specimen. Mary Murtfeldt was born in NYC but every publication of hers I've seen involves observations from Missouri, which is definitely where she was based in 1891.
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Reposted by Charley Eiseman
Andy Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ revkin.substack.com @revkin.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
See the influential paper and @undark.org commentary on Monsanto's ghostwriting by Alexander Kaurov & @naomioreskes.bsky.social: undark.org/2025/08/15/o... #pesticides #agtwitter
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
169 for me (out of 7351). Surprisingly these only include seven of the species I've named. I guess many of the others are only on BugGuide.
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Wondering who would cut 30 semicircular slits into the upper epidermis of a Cameraria leaf mine, and why... www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Genus Cameraria
Cameraria from Greenville County, SC, USA on June 20, 2025 at 03:36 PM by Grace Merkert
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
I've got your 2026 Leafminers of North America wall calendars right here!
bugtracks.wordpress.com
That time of year again!
I’ve just finished putting together the wall calendar that my most generous patrons receive as a thank-you gift each year. As usual, I will also send a copy to anyone who makes a donation of at lea…
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
A well-loved bunchberry plant (Cornus canadensis) with leaf mines of Phytomyza agromyzina (lower left), Antispila cornifoliella (other linear mines), Antispila freemani (big blotches), and a Caloptilia sp. (narrow blotch and leaf roll at right), as well as stippling from leafhopper feeding.
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Ah yes, "gall nuts," the common name universally used for the genus Quercus...
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Some weeks you don't get to name any new species, some weeks you get two. Here's my latest, complete with #OpenAccess link to the paper:
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Another One!
When it rains, it pours! Two days after I posted here about the newly named species Earomyia veratri, another paper of mine has just been published, describing another new fly species. This one is …
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
In my pursuit of an unknown species of leaf-mining fly on false hellebore, I accidentally discovered a new species of stem-boring fly, which had a zillion other insects living in the stems along with it.
bugtracks.wordpress.com
False Hellebore Fauna
For the past decade, I have been trying to rear an unknown species of Liriomyza (Agromyzidae) that mines leaves of false hellebore (Melanthiaceae: Veratrum viride). The mines are very scarce consid…
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Three larvae of Cameraria guttifinitella (Gracillariidae), all tucked in for the winter in their cozy circular silk chambers in a poison ivy leaf.
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Introducing Urodeta conocarpi (Elachistidae), a new leaf-mining moth from Florida and the Caribbean: bugtracks.wordpress.com/2025/08/24/a...
bugtracks.wordpress.com
Another leafminer gets a name!
Back in March, as I was updating my chapter on the plant order Myrtales in Leafminers of North America, I was reminded of a strange little moth that Thomas Irvine had reared four years earlier (in …
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
This is an unknown--probably undescribed--species that makes a frass-filled mine on Populus trichocarpa in western North America. Adults haven't yet been reared. Larvae can be found from late July to mid-October. www.inaturalist.org/observations...
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
I have a recurring problem where I can't get rid of the Search Results box when viewing a PDF in @adobe.com Acrobat. Anyone know how to fix this? Also, any way I can make everything AI-related go away, completely and forever?
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Any guesses what this says?
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
An apparent case of xenophagy: This leaf mine on dogbane—a plant that normally has no leafminers—was made by a Phyllocnistis species, almost certainly P. populiella, which normally mines in aspen leaves. Normally when an egg is laid on the wrong kind of leaf, the larva dies in an early instar...
inaturalist.org
Genus Phyllocnistis
Phyllocnistis from Arnes Airstrip (YNR), Arnes, MB R0C 0C0, Canada on July 15, 2025 at 07:41 PM by Séraphin Poudrier
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
What's my best option for a low- (or no- ?) cost open-access journal, with quick turnaround, for a short paper on insect taxonomy?
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Anyone going to be in southern Arizona or Mexico this summer? Someone needs to rear this mystery moth on Mirabilis longiflora! Larvae have been found from mid-August to early September; the known sites are shown here: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Curved-horn Moths (Superfamily Gelechioidea)
Curved-horn Moths from Cochise County, AZ, USA on August 28, 2022 at 10:53 AM by Ethan
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
bugtracks.wordpress.com
An Overlooked Miner
Every month, I take a break from whatever it is I do with the rest of my time, and I spend a few days updating another chapter of Leafminers of North America (now 1700+ pages into the third edition…
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Just escorted this redstart out of my garage.
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Something mining in sea lettuce (Ulva)?! www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Animals (Kingdom Animalia)
Animals from Comox-Strathcona, British Columbia, Canada on June 26, 2025 at 01:46 PM by Randal. On ulva
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Beetles of the Brachys aerosus complex (Buprestidae) reared from leaf mines on 16 different host plants.
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
One of the fanciest North American leaf mines made by a beetle.
inaturalist.org
Trumpet Creeper Leafminer (Octotoma plicatula)
Trumpet Creeper Leafminer from Balls Neck Rd, Heathsville, VA, US on June 17, 2025 at 10:17 AM by Anne Parker
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Anyone recognize these things found on/in a flower petal in Alaska? www.inaturalist.org/observations...
inaturalist.org
Winged and Once-winged Insects (Subclass Pterygota)
Winged and Once-winged Insects from Sitka County, US-AK, US on June 4, 2025 at 12:40 PM by M. Goff
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Charley Eiseman @ceiseman.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Anyone have a way of preventing tiny insect specimens stored in alcohol from shriveling when dried, that does not involve soaking in some toxic chemical?
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