Summary
Those squiggly white trails on a leaf are the tunnels of leaf miner larvae, eating their way between the top and bottom of the leaf. Deep Look shows how these tiny insects live and grow hidden inside a single leaf.
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All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
A leaf miner fly lays eggs on a leaf, and the hatched larvae tunnel and feed inside it, leaving winding trails. Sheltered between the leaf's layers, they grow until they're ready to change into adults -- a hidden life-cycle stage.
- What makes the squiggly lines on a mined leaf?
- How does living inside a leaf protect the larvae?
- What happens to a leaf miner after its larva stage?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: leaf miner, larva, tunnel, life cycle.
Try it: Draw a leaf and add a squiggly tunnel with a larva at the end. Write how living inside the leaf keeps the larva safe.