Leaf-mine: Long, narrow, whitish mine. Pupation internal (Spencer, 1976: 453); anterior spiracles projecting through the epidermis.

Whitish, upper-surface, rather narrow corridor with comparatively large frass grains that are laying further apart than their diameter. Pupation within the mine. The anterior spiracles of the orange-brown puparium penetrate the epidermis (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: The anterior spiracles are on relatively long stalks, each with up to 118 bulbs; posterior spiracles on short stalks, each with 10-13 bulbs (Spencer, 1976: 453). The larva is described by Sasakawa (1961) and Dempewolf (2001: 203) and illustrated in Bladmineerders van Europa).

Chromatomyia nigra larva, lateral Image: Willem Ellis (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Puparium: Yellowish-brown (Spencer, 1976: 453). The anterior spiracles of the orange-brown puparium penetrate the epidermis (Bladmineerders van Europa.

Chromatomyia nigra larva, ventral Image: Willem Ellis (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Comments: Griffiths (1980) treats nigra as a single species with five forms. Spencer (1990) treats nigra as a superspecies. However, he states that forms cannot be associated with particular hosts.

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - mines: June-August.

Time of year - adults: Unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Widespread and common throughout British Isles including Scotland (Spencer, 1972), Warwickshire (Coventry) (Robbins, 1991), Channel Is. (Martinez in Fauna Europaea); Cambridgeshire, Carmarthenshire, East Gloucestershire, East Kent, East Suffolk, East Sussex, Glamorgan, Hertfordshire,Isle Of Wight, Middlesex, Monmouthshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, North-east Yorkshire, Pembrokeshire, Shropshire, South-west Yorkshire, Stafford, Surrey West Kent and Worcestershire (NBN Gateway - N.B. includes Watsonian Vice Counties having publicly available records that fall within or overlap the vice county border at 10km resolution or better i.e. a record for a vice county may relate to an adjacent vice county - for included datasets see NBN Grid map below).

Also recorded in Ireland (Spencer, 1972).

NBN Grid map: Note that not all datasets on the NBN Gateway may be available on the map below. If you are an NBN Gateway registered user you can request access for missing datasets via the link 'Open interactive map in new window' below.

Distribution elsewhere: Common in much of Europe, including Denmark, Finland, Sweden (Spencer, 1976: 453), Madeira, the Baltic, Kamchatka (Siberia) (Spencer, 1990), The Netherlands, Luxembourg (Bladmineerders van Europa), Belgium (de Bruyn and von Tschirnhaus, 1991), Germany (Spencer, 1976: 453; Dempewolf, 2001: 203), Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Faroe Is., French mainland, Hungary, Iceland, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Madeira, Poland, Slovakia, Swden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia (Martinez in Fauna Europaea).

Also recorded in Canada, western U.S.A. and Japan (Spencer, 1976: 453).

NBN interactive distribution map(s) of known host species in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere:

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: