Author Archives: Charley Eiseman

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About Charley Eiseman

I am a freelance naturalist, endlessly fascinated by the interconnections of all the living and nonliving things around me. I am the lead author of Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates (Stackpole Books, 2010), and continue to collect photographs and information on this subject. These days I am especially drawn to galls, leaf mines, and other plant-insect interactions.

Sticktoitiveness

Posted on January 2, 2026 by Charley Eiseman

Thanks to the fact that I have a searchable email account, and never delete any emails, I was able to quickly reconstruct this timeline just now: On August 1, 2007, I got a reply from Mark Allison, editor at Stackpole … Continue reading →

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Life under a lettuce leaf

Posted on December 22, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

Ever since I found Marmara leaf mines on the undersides of tall blue lettuce (Asteraceae: Lactuca biennis) leaves in my yard five years ago (see this post, #164), I’ve been peeking under leaves periodically with the hope of finding some … Continue reading →

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That time of year again!

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

I’ve just finished putting together the wall calendar that my most generous patrons receive as a thank-you gift each year. As usual, I will also send a copy to anyone who makes a donation of at least $30 (the amount WordPress … Continue reading →

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Another One!

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

When it rains, it pours! Two days after I posted here about the newly named species Earomyia veratri, another paper of mine has just been published, describing another new fly species. This one is in the journal Insecta Mundi, which … Continue reading →

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False Hellebore Fauna

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

For the past decade, I have been trying to rear an unknown species of Liriomyza (Agromyzidae) that mines leaves of false hellebore (Melanthiaceae: Veratrum viride). The mines are very scarce considering how common the plant is along streams and in … Continue reading →

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Another leafminer gets a name!

Posted on August 24, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

Back in March, as I was updating my chapter on the plant order Myrtales in Leafminers of North America, I was reminded of a strange little moth that Thomas Irvine had reared four years earlier (in January 2021) from a … Continue reading →

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An Overlooked Miner

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

Every month, I take a break from whatever it is I do with the rest of my time, and I spend a few days updating another chapter of Leafminers of North America (now 1700+ pages into the third edition) to … Continue reading →

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Reawakenings

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

Behold! This little fly emerged the day before yesterday. It might look like a pretty generic fly (it happens to be an agromyzid in the genus Agromyza), but take a look at the lid of the vial in which it … Continue reading →

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Caterpillar Craftsmanship

Posted on March 22, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

On October 6 last fall I visited Aton Forest in northwestern Connecticut, in part to look for some leafminers I had found there the previous year on red oak (Fagaceae: Quercus rubra). I found what I was looking for (mines … Continue reading →

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A Sorry State of Affairs

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Charley Eiseman

This may not be the most exciting read, but it will give you a little window into the sorts of problems I’m wrestling with while trying to attach names to the insects I’m studying, as my country crumbles around me. … Continue reading →

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