The host with the most, part one

The bright, multicolored flowers of lantanas attract many insects to feed on the nectar they dispense.

A gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) visiting lantana flowers.

However, a number of other insects specialize on extracting nutrients from lantanas in other, more destructive ways.  Recently, I observed many lantana leaves that had been hollowed out, particularly along and around the veins.

A mined lantana leaf.

Although I did not see any of the leaf miners themselves, the pattern of damage was characteristic of the herringbone leaf-mining fly.

More lantana leaves mined by the larvae of the herringbone leaf-mining fly (Ophiomyia camarae)

Meanwhile, other lantanas were suffering from an even stranger affliction -- they had thick growths of miniature stems and leaves where they should have had flowers and fruits.

Lantana flower gall mites (Aceria lantanae) made this plant produce tiny stems and leaves in place of flowers.

In this case, bud mites were the culprits.  The mites had manipulated the plants into switching from producing flowers to growing more vegetative tissue, which had developed into galls enclosing the mites.