THE EGGPLANT LEAF-MINER, PHTHORIMAEA GLOCH- 
INELLA ZELLER 1 
By Thomas H. Jones 
Collaborator, Truck-Crop Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology, United States 
Department of Agriculture 
INTRODUCTION 
Although one finds many references to Phthorimaea operculella 2 Zeller, 
a member of the microlepidopterous family Gelechiidae, in publications 
relating to economic entomology, the congeneric glochinella Zell, has 
received little attention. This no doubt is due to the relative economic 
importance of the two species, for whereas operculella is recognized as an 
important enemy of potato and tobacco in many parts of the world, 
being known as the potato tuber moth and the tobacco splitworm, the 
larva of glochinella seems to have been recorded in literature as feeding 
only on the leaves of a weed, Solanum carolinense. It should be men¬ 
tioned, however, that this species was reared years ago from tomato 
leaves received from C. F. Stahl, Spreckels, Calif., and more recently 
from tomato leaves from Brawley, Calif., and from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, 
Mexico, by Dr. A. W. Morrill. 
The writer has found Phthorimaea glochinella to be a common, though 
not serious, enemy of eggplant in Louisiana. Since no extended account 
of its life history or habits has been published, and since operculella also 
feeds on eggplant (5, p. 14; < 5 , p. 3) 3 and Solanum carolinense (6, p. j), 
it is quite possible that glochinella , especially in the larval stage, has at 
times been mistaken for operculella. 
HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION 
Phthorimaea glochinella was described by Zeller (9, p. 263-264 , PL 3 , 
fig. 18) in 1873 from specimens collected in Texas, being placed in the 
genus Gelechia. In the same year, Chambers (j, v. 5, p. 176), under the 
name of Gelechia solaniella , gave a short description of a larva and the 
mines made by it in the leaves of Solanum carolinense. In 1881 Miss 
Murtfeldt (7, p. 244-243) described Gelechia cinerella from Missouri. 
Later (8, p. 139) finding cinerella preoccupied, she renamed it incon- 
spicuella. In 1902 Busck (r, p. 302) placed solaniella , cinerella , and in- 
cons picuella under glochinella as synonyms; and in 1903 ( 2 , p. 822) he 
published a full synonymy of this species with bibliography and notes. 
Carl Heinrich and August Busck have kindly furnished the following 
list of localities from specimens in the United States National Museum: 
Covington, Ky. (Aug. Busck); Kirkwood, Mo. (M. E. Murtfeldt); Clare¬ 
mont, Calif. (C. F. Baker); Brawley, Calif. (A. W. Morrill); Brownsville, 
Tex. (H. S. Barber); Boulder, Colo. (T. D. A. Cockerell); Wicomico 
Church, Va. (P. L. Boone); Norfolk, Va. (C. H. Popenoe); Baton Rouge, 
La. (T. H. Jones); Sinaloa, Mexico (A. W. Morrill). 
1 Accepted for publication Nov. i, 1923. 
2 Order Lepidoptera, family Gelechiidae. 
3 Reference is made by number (italic) to “Literature cited,” p. 57c. 
Vol. XXVI, No. 11 
Dec. 15, 1933 
Key No. K-121 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
aik 
(367) 
