Just monitor it, looks like nothing though...maybe some bird tried to sit on the branch or maybe it was windy and some debris like a twig or a stone hit it, maybe you might have brushed up against it and scratched it with something and not even realize it.

I'm glad I don't like watching horror movies, but I'll keep an eye out for this "Alien" pest when I check on my Meyer during the night.

A W, I've noticed small chewed marks on the shoots before and there is one right below the long mark in the photo. I noticed that singular mark & scratch awhile ago so the long one is definitely more recent. And weirdly it's right above the flush growth whatchamacallit, not higher towards the tip. I'll monitor it but if you guys happen to come across anything similar or pest damage descriptions similar to this, kindly link it my way if you're not too busy :) Thanks you two for the advice, I feel alittle more relieved that it may have been accidental

Sometimes we spend a lot of time stressing and worrying about the obvious. Your damage is most likely caused by rubbing against that metal basket that you have it in. There is a story about a woman who took her hamster to the vet; because for the last 3 days he just sat at the side of his cage.. didn't eat, didn't exercise. The vet put the hamster on the table and it began eating and running around; so the vet asked if anything out of the ordinary had happened in the last few days. The woman replied; "well he got out of his cage and was under the refrigerator for a couple of hours". The vet examined the hamster and found a refrigerator magnet in its cheek. The hamster had merely been stuck to the side of his metal cage because of the magnet in his cheek.

@johnmerr is that hamster story for real? LOL

Actually good eye it could have been rubbing against the metal basket...My initial thought was you got scared something hurt it and stuck it in a metal cage...Also why is it in a metal basket?

Poor hamster!! They really can fit a lot in those cheeks of theirs so it's entirely possible that the story is true lol

I have the lemon out of the basket now :) I only used it one time to soak the tree with water from the bottom up because of the nonstop rain we had a few days before then. I've drilled dozens of tiny holes into the pot underneath for both drainage and bottom-up absorption but the basket was the only thing wide enough to fit the pot! I'll really need to figure out a new method for that once I repot the tree next year

Maybe we could separate our young one from their smart phones with a set of school books, a metal chair with desk,and a magnet stitched in the seat of their pants to hold them in place long enough to get them to study.