oak shothole leafminer

Holey Oaks and Chestnuts

The holey handiwork of the Oak Shothole Leafminer (Japanagromyza viridula, syn. Agromyza viridula) is appearing on its namesake hosts in southern Ohio. Similar damage may be seen on Chinese chestnuts (Castanea mollissima). The leafminer is a small fly belonging to the family Agromyzidae; the leafminer flies.
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Authors
Joe Boggs
Holey Oak Leaves boggs.47@osu.edu Tue, 06/01/2021 - 16:09
The oak shothole leafminer is a small fly belonging to the family Agromyzidae; the leaf miner flies. The leafminer produces four progressive symptoms: small pinprick-like holes, larger holes, dark brown "blotch mines," and ragged-looking leaves with missing pieces.
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Joe Boggs
Ugly Oaks boggs.47@osu.edu Tue, 06/16/2020 - 13:47
BYGLers are reporting that four unrelated springtime problems are causing some oaks in Ohio to look pretty ugly. None of these problems cause harm to the overall health of their oak hosts. However, singly or collectively, they certainly affect the tree's aesthetics.
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Joe Boggs
Holey Oaks boggs.47@osu.edu Wed, 05/20/2020 - 12:02
What's making holes in newly expanding oak leaves in Ohio? The common name of the oak shothole leafminer (Japanagromyza viridula, syn. Agromyza viridula) clearly describes both the culprit and the damage they do to oaks. This small fly belongs to the family Agromyzidae; the leaf miner flies.
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Authors
Joe Boggs

Scuzzy Looking Oaks

Holes and blotch-type leafmines produced by the oak shothole leafminer coupled with necrotic tissue caused by oak anthracnose are combining to make some oaks in southwest Ohio look pretty scuzzy. The bad news is nothing can be done now to reverse the damage. The good news is that neither of these occasional springtime afflictions has a history of causing significant harm to the overall health of their oak hosts.
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Authors
Joe Boggs

Dueling Insects on Oak Leaf

One of the challenges of plant problem diagnostics is that Nature is sometimes less tidy than we might wish. Pests do not confine their damage to plants one at a time, and also the different stages of an insect may cause different types of damage (symptoms).  Oak shothole leafminer (Agromyza viridula) adult flies damage oak leaf buds with their ovipositors. The holes from this damage expand as the leaf expands, causing the characteristically parallel holes on either side of the unfolding leaf.  Later larvae of this insect cause leaf-mining damage shown as browned areas in the...

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Authors
Jim Chatfield
Joe Boggs