Zeugophora puberula Crotch

(Figs. 120, 172)

Reared specimens. VERMONT: Windham Co., Marlboro, Hogback Mountain Conservation Area, 5.ix.2018, em. 8.v.2019, C.S. Eiseman, ex Populus tremuloides, # CSE5253 (1 adult, MLBM) .

Hosts. * Salicaceae: Populus tremuloides Michx.; adults have also been reported from Salix (Clark 2000) .

Biology. The habits of this species are as Strickland (1920) described for Zeugophora scutellaris Suffrian. Adults window-feed in small patches on either leaf surface, leaving the veins intact. The egg is inserted in a cavity chewed in the lower surface and causes a brown spot to appear on the upper surface. The larva forms an upper-surface blotch mine that is dark brown, soon turning blackish, and no frass pattern is discernible (Fig. 120). The two collected leaf mines each had a lobed shape, influenced to some extent by the larger veins and adult feeding sites. When finished feeding, both larvae exited their mines and burrowed into soil (the second one on 12 September).

Parasitoid. A female of Lathrolestes zeugophorae Barron ( Ichneumonidae) emerged from the soil in late June (CSE5423, CNC). This wasp has previously been reared from undetermined Zeugophora spp. in Canada (Barron 1994).

Notes. This is apparently the first rearing record for Zeugophora puberula, as well as the first record of this species from Vermont (Riley et al. 2003).