Charley Eiseman
@ceiseman.bsky.social
Freelance naturalist, especially into leafminers, sawfly larvae, and other underappreciated herbivorous insects | http://bugtracks.wordpress.com
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...
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…
bugtracks.wordpress.com
September 19, 2026 at 1:16 AM
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...
Arizona plant question: Can anyone tell me for sure whether this is Gutierrezia sarothrae or Gymnosperma glutinosum?
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
gumhead (Gymnosperma glutinosum)
gumhead from Cochise County, AZ, USA on March 2, 2017 at 03:17 PM by Charley Eiseman
www.inaturalist.org
September 11, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Arizona plant question: Can anyone tell me for sure whether this is Gutierrezia sarothrae or Gymnosperma glutinosum?
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
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!).
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 …
bugtracks.wordpress.com
August 28, 2026 at 1:32 PM
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!).
My latest couple of new moth species:
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…
bugtracks.wordpress.com
August 4, 2026 at 3:00 AM
My latest couple of new moth species:
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...
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...
zenodo.org
July 25, 2026 at 10:34 PM
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...
Lupine leafminers wanted!
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…
bugtracks.wordpress.com
July 5, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Lupine leafminers wanted!
@scottpegan.bsky.social Weird thing on a Q. virginiana branch for your consideration: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Insects (Class Insecta)
Insects from Riverview, FL, USA on June 21, 2026 at 06:42 AM by Ryan Callahan
www.inaturalist.org
July 5, 2026 at 9:07 PM
@scottpegan.bsky.social Weird thing on a Q. virginiana branch for your consideration: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
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!
June 20, 2026 at 1:52 PM
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!
Warblers feasting on leaf-mining sawfly larvae: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
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)
www.inaturalist.org
June 16, 2026 at 9:16 PM
Warblers feasting on leaf-mining sawfly larvae: www.inaturalist.org/observations...
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...
June 5, 2026 at 10:41 AM
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...
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...
Phytomyza verbenae
Phytomyza verbenae in May 2026 by Ryan Donnelly. Host Verbena californica (CRPR 1B.1, Federally Threatened, State Threatened)
www.inaturalist.org
May 22, 2026 at 11:34 PM
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...
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.
May 22, 2026 at 10:05 AM
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.
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...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Phytomyza nemophilae
Phytomyza nemophilae from Building 3, Portland, OR 97229, USA on May 4, 2026 at 02:00 PM by Tser
www.inaturalist.org
May 5, 2026 at 1:39 PM
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...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
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
May 2, 2026 at 11:22 PM
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
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.
May 1, 2026 at 1:43 PM
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.
Anybody know about these square eggs in India? www.inaturalist.org/observations...
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
www.inaturalist.org
February 28, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Anybody know about these square eggs in India? www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Reposted by Charley Eiseman
Profile of @ceiseman.bsky.social's leafminer work. #inaturalist #leafminers #insects #moths #flies #sawflies #beetles #entomology www.inaturalist.org/blog/124811
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...
www.inaturalist.org
February 22, 2026 at 10:59 AM
Profile of @ceiseman.bsky.social's leafminer work. #inaturalist #leafminers #insects #moths #flies #sawflies #beetles #entomology www.inaturalist.org/blog/124811
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/
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…
bugtracks.wordpress.com
February 15, 2026 at 3:41 PM
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/
Reposted by Charley Eiseman
This greenbriar leafminer, Marmara smilacisella, adorned its cocoon with clusters of pearlescent bubbles. I wish my holiday decorations were so neat!
December 26, 2025 at 3:46 AM
This greenbriar leafminer, Marmara smilacisella, adorned its cocoon with clusters of pearlescent bubbles. I wish my holiday decorations were so neat!
Reposted by Charley Eiseman
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...
United States Vs. One Moon Rock
Having a moon rock may not be illegal, but getting one almost certainly is.
www.forbes.com
January 28, 2026 at 4:01 PM
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...
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...
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...
www.inaturalist.org
January 27, 2026 at 10:53 PM
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...
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...
Thirty-three new species of Agromyzidae (Diptera) from the United States and Canada, with new host and distribution records for 154 additional species
| Zootaxa
mapress.com
January 8, 2026 at 10:36 PM
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...
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).
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,…
bugtracks.wordpress.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:20 PM
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).