Larva that makes a pleat in eggplant leaf as nest?

gorbelly · July 5, 2016

I will try to get pictures tomorrow when the light is better.

While inspecting some brown spots on my Aswad eggplants, I noticed that, on the underside of the leaf, some kind of larva (couldn't see well in the fading light, but it was a small black or dark grey caterpillar-like creature about 2mm in length), sometimes in groups of 2 or 3) had pleated the leaf and sealed the edges to make a pocket for itself to live in. The pleated area is a 1/2 inch to 1 inch long and about 1/2 inch wide when I pull it apart to "unpleat" it. I found several such pockets over 3 plants. There doesn't seem to be any webbing, as with tent caterpillars. It's literally as though the pleats were cemented at the edges to form the pockets.

Normally, I'm able to find the information I need on pests, but I had a hard time finding language to describe it that would get a hit in Google. The closest I found was the Eggplant Leafroller, but these are much smaller and don't roll the whole leaf, just pleats a small portion of it.

Is it just a younger stage of the larva? The leaves affected are not the youngest leaves, as in all the articles I pulled up on the leafroller, but large, mature leaves.

Just making sure it's not a beneficial bug that will do minimal damage to the eggplants before I go out tomorrow and pick them off.

July 5, 2016	#1
gorbelly Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Southeastern Pennsylvania Posts: 1,069	Larva that makes a pleat in eggplant leaf as nest? I will try to get pictures tomorrow when the light is better. While inspecting some brown spots on my Aswad eggplants, I noticed that, on the underside of the leaf, some kind of larva (couldn't see well in the fading light, but it was a small black or dark grey caterpillar-like creature about 2mm in length), sometimes in groups of 2 or 3) had pleated the leaf and sealed the edges to make a pocket for itself to live in. The pleated area is a 1/2 inch to 1 inch long and about 1/2 inch wide when I pull it apart to "unpleat" it. I found several such pockets over 3 plants. There doesn't seem to be any webbing, as with tent caterpillars. It's literally as though the pleats were cemented at the edges to form the pockets. Normally, I'm able to find the information I need on pests, but I had a hard time finding language to describe it that would get a hit in Google. The closest I found was the Eggplant Leafroller, but these are much smaller and don't roll the whole leaf, just pleats a small portion of it. Is it just a younger stage of the larva? The leaves affected are not the youngest leaves, as in all the articles I pulled up on the leafroller, but large, mature leaves. Just making sure it's not a beneficial bug that will do minimal damage to the eggplants before I go out tomorrow and pick them off.