Dibolia chelones Parry, 1974

Eiseman, Charles S., 2014, New Host Records and Other Notes on North American Leaf-Mining Chrysomelidae (Coleoptera), The Coleopterists Bulletin 68 (3), pp. 351-359 : 357-358

Dibolia chelones Parry

This species has been associated repeatedly and exclusively with Chelone glabra L. ( Plantaginaceae ), but the immature stages are unknown ( Parry 1974). I have examined two empty mines from this plant, collected in Sunderland, Massachusetts on 15 Sept 2013, that surely were made by this beetle. One was irregularly linear, following the leaf edge; the other was in the leaf interior, appearing to be an oval blotch, but on close examination it was determined to be a secondary blotch, i.e., an extremely contorted linear mine. Both mines contained a continuous string of very fine frass, occasionally straight but mostly very squiggly ( Fig. 15 ). I have seen similar frass in mines of Dibolia borealis Chevrolat in Plantago major L. ( Plantaginaceae ). No other leafminer has been associated with the genus Chelone L. except the polyphagous fly Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) (Agromyzidae) (Benavent-Corai et al. 2005), which makes narrow, linear mines with frass in well-defined grains or strips at alternate sides of the channel ( Spencer 1973).

Adults of D. chelones have been collected on C. glabra from May until mid-August ( Parry 1974). Presumably, larvae can be found in their mines in June, as is the case with D. borealis in Massachusetts. Larvae of that species mine for about two weeks ( Reed 1927), and those that I have reared emerged as adults 30 days after exiting their mines.

Figures

Figs. 13–17. 13) Young Sumitrosis inaequalis larva mining in white wood aster (Eurybia divaricata) leaf; egg at upper right; 14) Mine of Sumitrosis rosea in leaf of Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus); 15) Detail of presumed Dibolia chelones mine in leaf of white turtlehead (Chelone glabra), showing squiggly strings of frass; 16) Leaf of climbing false buckwheat (Fallopia scandens) mined by four Mantura floridana larvae; 17) Mines of Monoxia angularis in Atriplex prostrata leaf.