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Melaleuca quinquenervia and Lophyrotoma zonalis
Soft healthy leaves of a beautiful young Melaleuca plant (Melaleuca quinquenervia) was being slowly skeletonised- with the main veins alone remaining. The branches had dried up and formed an interesting pattern. The culprits were an army of sawfly larvae (Lophyrotoma zonalis), tails up marching along both surfaces of the leaf, munching every bit (Pic # 4). The larvae were only about 11mm each
Melaleuca - an australian native plant
There are a few spottings on PN of the melaleuca sawfly and larvae, but I don't think there are any (so far) of their ( small larvae) damaging work leaving behind such attractive patterns.... larger larvae eat the whole leaf as in www.projectnoah.org/spottings/8212557
13 Comments
Wow! Incredible!!
amazing and beautiful spotting! Beauty in Decay!
Thanks Shanna & Karen - I think the plant must be half demolished by now !
Lovely!
Beautiful shots.
Thanks arlanda, Sachin and argybee
Ashish, sorry I don't have any more pictures of this plant. It is only a little sapling, about a year old - very slow growing ( maybe because it's being eaten so often!). It's about 60cm tall and does not have a trunk to speak of..
I have replaced one of the photos to better illustrate the purpose of this spotting.
Its interesting plant... Do you have picture of the trunk of this plant..?
These ones are possibly already just past the skeletonising size.
Nice work.
Wow... quite artistic for a sawfly
Nice series,
very nice!