Horse-chestnut leaf miner
The horse-chestnut leaf miner is a tiny moth with shiny brown wings and thin silvery-white stripes. Its caterpillars live inside horse-chestnut leaves and eat tunnels between the top and bottom of the leaf. That is why so many horse-chestnut trees turn brown already in summer.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Horse-chestnut leaf miner compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It was first noticed in 1984 near Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia. But a botanist had already pressed some by accident in leaves he collected in Greece in 1879.
It spreads across Europe about 60 kilometres every year, probably riding along on cars and trucks.
Its pupae can survive cold as low as minus 23 degrees.
In hot, dry summers it can have up to five generations in one year.
Each mum lays 20 to 40 tiny eggs, one by one, on top of the leaves.
Most asked questions about Horse-chestnut leaf miner
?Why do horse-chestnut leaves turn brown in summer?
Often because the caterpillars of the horse-chestnut leaf miner are eating tunnels inside the leaves.
?Does the horse-chestnut leaf miner kill trees?
No. The trees look bad, but they survive and grow new leaves the next year.
?How big is a horse-chestnut leaf miner?
The moth is tiny, up to about 5 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cameraria ohridella
- Named by
- Deschka & DimiΔ, 1986
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Gracillariidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Gracillariidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Horse-chestnut leaf miner (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Adrian Tync. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Atlas moth
Luna moth
Hummingbird hawk-moth
Domestic silk moth
Isabella tiger moth
Polyphemus moth
Two-lined spittlebug
Two-spotted cricket
Cottony cushion scale
Clouded yellow
Karner blue
Harlequin bug