Need help identifying

Defiant20 · May 24, 2012

I need help identifying what insect these eggs belong to and if they are good or bad. They are on a tomato leaf, are white, and appear to be covered in a cocoon or some web like material.

Defiant20 · May 25, 2012

On Dave's Garden web site someone identified this as the pupae of the parasitic wasp. Definitely the good guys.

Kazfam · May 25, 2012

The webbing makes me think spider but the shape not so much.

Perhaps the spinach leaf miner: http://bugguide.net/node/view/320721

Spinach leafminers. The only insect that regularly mines edible parts of plants is the spinach leafminer (Pegomya hyoscyami), which produces large, dark blotchmines in leaves of spinach, beets, and related weeds. Adults are small gray flies, about half the size of a house fly and they emerge in spring to lay eggs on the underside of leaves. The eggs of this insect are quite distinctive, being white and laid in small masses. Problems are most common in gardens where spinach and beets are overwintered and continuously grown, providing host plants for the insects. Injuries most commonly occur in spring but there are two or more generations produced during the growing season.

Spinach leafminers pose different problems as they appear on edible crops. In gardens the most simplest and most effective means of controlling this insect is to regularly check the plants for the presence of eggs, which can be hand crushed. Leaves with actively growing larvae should be picked and destroyed; leaving picked leaves on the ground will allow the larvae to finish development.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05548.html

Here is general leafminer info: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2903/

May 25, 2012	#3
Kazfam Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Upstate South Carolina Posts: 113	The webbing makes me think spider but the shape not so much. Perhaps the spinach leaf miner: http://bugguide.net/node/view/320721 Spinach leafminers. The only insect that regularly mines edible parts of plants is the spinach leafminer (Pegomya hyoscyami), which produces large, dark blotchmines in leaves of spinach, beets, and related weeds. Adults are small gray flies, about half the size of a house fly and they emerge in spring to lay eggs on the underside of leaves. The eggs of this insect are quite distinctive, being white and laid in small masses. Problems are most common in gardens where spinach and beets are overwintered and continuously grown, providing host plants for the insects. Injuries most commonly occur in spring but there are two or more generations produced during the growing season. Spinach leafminers pose different problems as they appear on edible crops. In gardens the most simplest and most effective means of controlling this insect is to regularly check the plants for the presence of eggs, which can be hand crushed. Leaves with actively growing larvae should be picked and destroyed; leaving picked leaves on the ground will allow the larvae to finish development. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05548.html Here is general leafminer info: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2903/ __________________ God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment of the spirit of man, without which buildings and palaces are but gross handiwork. Francis Bacon

May 25, 2012	#2
Defiant20 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Texas Posts: 44	On Dave's Garden web site someone identified this as the pupae of the parasitic wasp. Definitely the good guys.