Life in Newburgh on Ythan

By Talpa

A leaf curl midge larva

A couple of days ago I blipped a leaf afflicted with midge leaf curl galls. I brought one home and  today I opened it up to see the cause of the problem. Here it is, the larva of a leaf curl midge, all 2 mm of it! I'm far from confident that I can identify it to species level but its life cycle will doubtless be similar to that of the well documented apple leaf curl midge. Viz:

" The larvae are legless, tiny maggots found inside curled leaves. They can be detected with the naked eye. They start as pale yellow but become reddish orange as they develop. At full size, they are about 2 mm long.
The pupae are rarely seen, but are segmented, light-orange capsule inside silk cocoons.The adults are small flies, approximately 2 mm long, with dark bodies and clear wings.  
The midge overwinters as pupae in the soil. Adults emerge in the spring and lay eggs on the folds of immature leaves.  The eggs take 2-10 days to hatch into larvae that begin feeding on the leaves.  The leaf margins become tightly curled into distorted tubes, which turn red, then brown and brittle.  The larvae grow as they feed.  They pupate either in the leaf or after they drop to the ground."

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