Leaf miner

Love this Luis. Leaf Miner patterns are fascinating. I've never seen one on cactus before.

Spectacular! This is awesome!

Not sure it actually is that species - given that there could be more than one thing that do this, and we couldn't even dig up a picture of the mine. Maybe someone else out there will know more about gracillariids and might be able to comment.

Hi Luis. Lovely picture. I would agree with Lenny that it might very well be a moth - it certainly looks like a moth mine. I tried to come up with a similar picture - but couldn't find one. I did a Google search on "Opuntia Gracillariidae" and came up with a reference to a small moth which forms mines on Opuntia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmara_opuntiella Unfortunately I can't seem to come up with a picture of the mine. Gracillariidae is a family of small moths which are primarily leaf miners. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracillariidae

This was made by the larvae of a Leaf Mining insect.Most likely a moth. Check wiki