Basswood Leafminer

Baliosus nervosus · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Chrysomelidae

Also called: Basswood Leaf Miner

Damages trees, gardens or crops. It damages basswood trees and soybean crops.

Source: Wikipedia

Basswood Leafminer
Photo: skitterbug, CC BY

Baliosus nervosus is a leaf beetle that lives in North America and mainly uses basswood as its host plant. Adults skeletonize basswood leaves while larvae mine soybean leaves, harming both ornamental trees and crops.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Baliosus nervosus is a leaf beetle in the family Chrysomelidae.

Source: Wikipedia

Is it a pest in the house?

Adults skeletonize leaf surfaces, which can be a nuisance for gardeners.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It is found in North America.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Adults feed on basswood leaves and skeletonize the leaf surface. Larvae create leaf mines on soybean leaves.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range is North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 38 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, Ohio.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Basswood Leafminer photo 2
Photo: Kai Squires, CC BY
Basswood Leafminer photo 3
Photo: Kai Squires, CC BY
Basswood Leafminer photo 4
Photo: Evan M. Raskin, CC BY
Basswood Leafminer photo 5
Photo: aispinsects, CC BY

Questions people ask

What plants are affected by the basswood leaf miner?

Adults damage basswood leaves, and larvae mine soybean leaves.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Chrysomelidae)

Spotted Cucumber BeetleSpotted Cucumber BeetleDiabrotica undecimpunctataDamages trees, gardens or cropsBean WeevilBean WeevilAcanthoscelides obtectusDamages trees, gardens or cropsCowpea WeevilCowpea WeevilCallosobruchus maculatusDamages trees, gardens or cropsSwamp Milkweed Leaf BeetleSwamp Milkweed Leaf BeetleLabidomera clivicollisDamages trees, gardens or cropsAlder Leaf BeetleAlder Leaf BeetleAgelastica alniDamages trees, gardens or cropsDogbane Leaf BeetleDogbane Leaf BeetleChrysochus auratus

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baliosus_nervosus

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-24.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.