Goldenrod leafminer
Microrhopala vittata

The goldenrod leafminer is a small leaf beetle. It can be red or black, with a lighter stripe running down each wing case. As its name says, it lives on goldenrod plants.
Lives in
Southern Canada and almost all of the United States, where goldenrods grow
Length
5 to 6 mm (0.2 to 0.24 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a tiny plant-eating beetle that cannot hurt people.
What does it eat?
It feeds on many kinds of goldenrod, and also on rosinweed plants.

How big is it?
How long is it?
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small enough to sit on your fingernail๐ฝ๏ธcould run across a dinner table in 11 seconds
How big is Goldenrod leafminer compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Goldenrod leafminer about 0.32 km/h (0.2 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It is only about half a centimetre long.
2
The adults come out in April.
3
The female lays her eggs in little groups of two to four and then covers them with her own droppings to hide them.
you asked
Most asked questions about Goldenrod leafminer
?What does the goldenrod leafminer eat?
Goldenrod plants, and sometimes rosinweeds.
?How big is the goldenrod leafminer?
Only about 5 to 6 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Microrhopala vittata
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Microrhopala vittata (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 Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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.
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