Do some characters of leaf mines of Nepticulidae depend on anything else than the characteristics of the species itself?

Abstract

The article examines the aspects of dependence of some leaf mine characters. The correlation between the deposition of frass and the morphological type of the leaf mine suggests that ecological adaptations associated with the drying of the frass are diverse, depending on the morphological type the leaf mine. The colour of frass has little in common with the systematic group (i.e., family) of host plants. Black frass is characteristic and predominant among miners of any host plant family. The study also suggests that the location of frass is at least partially associated with different morphological types of leaf mines. When summarising the results of the study, it can be stated that the filling of the initial part of the mine with frass is related to the filling of the whole gallery of the leaf mine.