The head is often wedge shaped to separate the epidermal layers, legs are small and reduced as well as the antennae and eyes. Many are sap-feeding and merely damage the tissues to then feed on the wound reactions. The food consists of palisade cells, the parenchyma, and the oozing sap. Veins sometimes impede the miners so that they must dwell in a confined area. If latex cells are cut in some plants, the secretions may drown or kill the larvae.
Some larvae are adept at avoiding such latex cells.
Resinous cells have toxic chemicals that deter non-host insects but have little affect on adapted leaf miners. For example, leaf miners attack poison ivy and other poisonous plants. The majority of leaf mines are made during the middle or end of summer. Usually if the attack is early in the spring then this leads to a gall. Leaf mines occur usually in mature leaves.