ANISANTHA. Bromes. [Poaceae]

Seven species of Anisantha are recorded in Britain.

No Diptera miners are recorded on Anisantha in Britain.

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

Elsewhere one British non-Diptera miner, Elachista argentella, is recorded on Anisantha (see below).

A key to the European miners, based on characteristics of the mines, immature stages and where relevant the larval cases, recorded on Anisantha, Bromopsis and Bromus is provided in Bladmineerders van Europa. This includes Coleophora onopordiella, Coleophora lixella, Coleophora ornatipennella, Elachista spp., Hydrellia griseola, Agromyza intermittens, Agromyza albipennis, Agromyza rondensis, Agromyza bromi, Agromyza nigrella and Agromyza mobilis, Cerodontha muscina, Chromatomyia nigra, Chromatomyia fuscula, Cerodontha incisa, Cerodontha pygmaea, Liriomyza flaveola and Cerodontha flavocingulata but not Coleophora tricolor or Elachista megerlella.

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

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: A small narrow mine on a wide variety of grasses. In the spring the larva changes leaves and mines tip downwards. The mine fills the leaf width. The frass is packed in the top of the mine (British leafminers). In autumn the larva makes a narrow corridor a few cm in length, in which it hibernates. In March it moves to a new leaf. Here a transparent, full depth mine is made that descends from the leaf tip, and occupies the entire width of the blade. Most frass is concentrated in the oldest, highest, part of the mine. The larva may leave its mine and restart elsewhere. Pupation outside the mine (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Recorded on Dactylis glomerata, but not yet on Anisantha, in Britain. Recorded on numerous grasses including Anisantha elsewhere. Widespread in Britain and continental Europe. Also recorded in the Republic of Ireland

Elachista argentella (Clerck, 1759) [Lepidoptera: Elachistidae]