AETHIONEMA. Candytufts. [Brassicaceae]

Two species of Aethionema, Persian Candytuft (A. gradiflorum) and Burnt Candtuft (A. saxatile), are recorded in Britain. Both are introduced.

No Diptera miners are recorded on Aethionema in Britain.

Elsewhere the polyphagous agromyzids Liriomyza bryoniae and Chromatomyia horticola and the polyphagous drosophilid Scaptomyza flava are recorded mining Aethionema.

No non-Diptera miners are recorded on Aethionema in Britain.

Elsewhere one British non-Diptera miner, Ceutorrhynchus minutus, is recorded on Aethionema (see below).

A key to the European miners, based on characteristics of the mines, immature stages and where relevant the larval cases, recorded on Aethionema is provided in Bladmineerders van Europa. This includes Plutella xylostella, Phyllotreta nemorum, Ceutorrhynchus minutus, Chromatomyia horticola, Liriomyza bryoniae, Liriomyza xanthocera and Scaptomyza flava

Key for the identification of the mines of British non-Diptera recorded on
Aethionema

Note: The larvae of mining Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera may live in a corridor mine, a corridor-blotch mine, a blotch mine, a case, a rolled or folded leaf, a tentiform mine or sandwiched between two more or less circular leaf sections in later instars. Larva may pupate in a silk cocoon. The larva may have at least six legs (although they may be reduced or absent), a head capsule and chewing mouthparts with opposable mandibles (see video of a gracillarid larva feeding). Larvae of Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera usually also have abdominal legs (see examples). Frass, if present, never in two rows. Unless feeding externally from within a case the larva usually vacates the mine by chewing an exit hole. Pupa with visible head appendages, wings and legs which lie in sheaths (see examples).

1 > Leaf-miner: Rather small, untidy, full depth, often branched corridor, often close to the leaf margin. Sides irregularly eaten out. Frass in a greyish-green central line that is interrupted from time to time, sometimes partly in strings. In times of rain the frass may run out and appear greenish. Usually several mines in a leaf (Bladmineerders van Europa). The legless larva is rather shapeless, with a well-sclerotised head. The body is whitish; head greyish brown with Y-shaped lighter marking. Pronotum with a pair of brownish shields. The mandibles have two teeth (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Mine of Ceutorhynchus minutus on Raphanus sativus Image: Willem Ellis (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Recorded on numerous genera and species of Brassicaceae, Capparaceae, Resedaceae and Tropaeolaceae, including Cochlearia in Britain and Aethionema elsewhere. Widespread in Britain and continental Europe. Also recorded in the Republic of Ireland.

Ceutorhynchus minutus (Marsham, 1802) [Coleoptera: Curculionidae]