Country: United States

Title: Regulatory Action for Pea Leaf Miner (Liriomyza huidobrensis) – United States

Contact:
Joseph Cavey, National Identification Services, Registration, Identification, Permits, and Plant Safeguarding, Plant Protection and Quarantine, (301)-734-8547

Report:

Effective November 1, 2009, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will take action on commodities imported into the United States if pea leaf miner is detected, regardless of the state of destination.

On December 19, 2008, APHIS solicited to determine an option for the continued regulation of Liriomyza huidobrensis, commonly known as pea leaf miner. Leaf mining flies of the insect family, Agromyzidae, which includes pea leaf miner, arrive in commerce almost exclusively as larvae or pupae. APHIS has always taken action at ports of entry when Agromyzidae were found on commodities because these immature insects cannot be identified to the species level using morphological characters alone. However, only in a few cases where surveys on specific crops in specific countries determined that pea leaf miner was virtually the only species of Agromyzidae on those crops could we appropriately assume that the intercepted, immature flies were pea leaf miner. Pea leaf miner was also thought to be present in certain states within the United States, so APHIS regulated pea leaf miner by taking action only on imported shipments destined to Florida because that state employed an effective exclusion program to prevent introduction of the pest through interstate trade. However, research indicates that the pest previously believed to be pea leaf miner in the United States is actually L. langei.

APHIS will take action on imported commodities regardless of the state of destination into the United States if pea leaf miner is detected. We will also continue taking action on imported commodities if immature larvae or pupae of the family Agromyzidae are detected. APHIS action will consist of treatment, destruction, or re-exportation of infested shipments.

Under IPPC standards, Liriomyza huidobrensis is considered to be Absent: pest records invalid in the United States.
 

Posted Date: Sept. 21, 2009, 9 a.m.