Morphology and anatomy of a leaf mine in Vismia guianensis (Aubl.) Choisy (Clusiaceae) in a fragment of Brazilian Atlantic forest

Abstract

Mines or hyponomes are channels caused by larva miners consuming internal plant tissues. These miners live on the leaf and feed from these tissues. Leaf mines are usually visible on the exterior of the leaf as serpentine paths, blotches, or other characteristic shapes of discolored tissues. Morphological and structural modifications undergone by mined leaves of Vismia guianensis (Aubl.) Choisy are presented here with the purpose of elucidating their structure and to contribute to studies about insect-plant interactions. Healthy and mined leaves were harvested from thirty plants and taken to the laboratory. For each branch, the total number of young and mature leaves, the number of leaves with mines and the number of mine per leaf were counted. Transverse sections of healthy and mined leaves were obtained to observe the morpho-anatomic aspects. From the 1,438 mature leaves and 379 young leaves analyzed, 214 (14.9%) and 70 (18.5%) were mined, where most of the leaves (67%) presented one mine per leaf. Transverse sections of the mine revealed that the larva consumed only mesophyll parenchyma tissue and the epidermis remains intact. There is not a pattern of leaf mining, but the larvae did not consume the druses observed on mesophyll and the vascular tissues of the mid-vein and lateral vein.