A new grapevine leafminer from South Africa by Erik J. van Nieukerken of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, The Netherlands and Henk Geertsema, Stellenbosch University
A new species of grapevine leafminer was described from material collected from table grape orchards in the Paarl region (Western Cape, South Africa) and in Gauteng. The new species has been named Holocacista capensis sp. n. and material of this species is housed in the National Collection of Insects of the Agricultural Research Council, Ditsong National Museum of Natural History and Iziko South African Museum. The new species has also been found on the indigenous plant species Rhoicissus digitate, which is from the same family as cultivated grapes. The species is sometimes present in high densities, but does not seem to cause major damage to grape crops. See the full paper: Van Nieukerken EJ, Geertsema H (2015) A new leafminer on grapevine and Rhoicissus (Vitaceae) in South Africa within an expanded generic concept of Holocacista (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Heliozelidae). ZooKeys 507: 41–97. doi:10.3897/zookeys.507.9536.
Image: A leaf miner of the genus Holocacista capensis. By van Nieukerken EJ, Geertsema H [CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.