ARCTOSTAPHYLOS. Bearberry. [Ericaceae]

Two species of Arctostaphylos are recorded in Britain. Both are native and include Bearberry (A. uva-ursi) and Alpine Bearberry (A. alpinus).

No Diptera miners are recorded on Arctostaphylos in Britain.

Two non-Diptera mines, Coleophora arctostaphyli and Epinotia nemorivaga, are recorded on Arctostaphylos in Britain and elsewhere (see below).

A key to the European miners, based on characteristics of the mines, immature stages and where relevant the larval cases, recorded on Arctostaphylos is provided in Bladmineerders van Europa. This includes Coleophora arctostaphyli, Argyroploce arbutella, Ectoedemia albibimaculella and Epinotia nemorivaga

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

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).

1a > Leaf-miner and case bearer: Spathulate leaf case, about 8 mm long, with a mouth angle arounf 45°. Before making its first case the young larva lives in a frass-filled contorted corridor (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Recorded on Arctostaphylos uva-ursi in Britain and elsewhere. Banff, Easterness, Elgin and South Aberdeen in Britain. Widespread in continental Europe.

Coleophora arctostaphyli Meder, 1934 [Lepidoptera: Coleophoridae]

1b > Leaf-miner: Larva mines the leaves turning the upper part from red to black. In the spring the larva spins the leaves together and then mines the leaves- creating bladder mines (British leafminers). The larva begins by making a corridor that generally traverses the leaf perpendicularly, and later remains visible as a brown ridge. Upon arrival at the other side this corridor is vacated through an unitidy hole (In some instances an exuvium was found here). Next the larva makes a a large, untidy full depth blotch, either in the same leaf or in a neighbouring one. The blotch, that may occupy the entire leaf, contains many coarse, oval, frass grains. The larva leaves the blotch through a large circular opening. Before moving to a new leaf to old and the new are connected with silk (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Recorded on Arctostaphylos uva-ursi in Britain and elsewhere. A species generally of high moorland and mountains, occurring in Scotland from Perth northwards. Also recorded in parts of Ireland, where it occurs at lower elevations. Widespread in continental Europe.

Epinotia nemorivaga (Tengström, 1848) [Lepidoptera: Tortricidae]