THE LEAF EATERS - 6

(A yellow/dark green larva, Length Approx. 1.5 mm)

March 13, 2022

I saw white paths left by something on the top side of some leaves of my 60 cm tall long bean මෑකරල් plant. The plant had 15 leaves. The six leaves lowest on the main stem were damaged. Something had scooped out the leaves’ chlorophyll. The three leaves just above the leaves lowest on the main stem were full of squiggly paths.

What kind of a creature had fed on the leaf? It looked as if it had fed and left the leaf surface. I held a magnifying glass over the leaves. While I was looking through the glass, at the paths, I saw a creature that looked like a tiny larva—a small worm, at the end of one of the highly visible paths.

It has a cylindrical-shaped body. One half of its body is yellow and the other half looked dark green. Its legs and head are not visible. A squiggly black line was also visible along the white path. It seemed that it was the line of the plant matter left by the creature after it had fed on the leaf. I found three larvae on two leaves. What is the adult form of this larva? It may be a small insect—a fly.

The creatures were alive. They continued to feed on the leaves. They were eating slowly. After several hours, I looked at the creatures. They had stopped feeding—they looked dead.

What had attacked the tiny larvae? The leaves had not badly infested. Therefore, the leaves can still generate some energy for the plant. I did not remove the damaged leaves from the plant.

The images were captured as it was found happening in nature, and not enhanced using software. Images may be subject to copyright.