Mine of Ophiomyia pulicaria on Taraxacum officinale. Image: Willem Ellis (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Leaf-mine: A whitish blotch-mine along the mid-rib, with lateral offshoots into the leaf blade. Pupation at base of leaf in petiole (Spencer, 1972: 25).

Broad corridor overlying the midrib, with short excursion into the blade, mainly in its basal part. Frass concentrated in the basal part of the mine, corridors almost free from frass. Pupation in the mine, also in the basal part (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: The larva is described by de Meijere (1928) and Sasakawa (1961). Posterior spiracles on short stalks, each with an ellipse of 11-14 bulbs (Spencer, 1972: 25).

Puparium: Pale, whitish-yellow (Spencer, 1972: 25).

Comments: Leontodon autumnalis is treated as Scorzoneroides autumnalis (Autumn Hawkbit) by Stace (2010).

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - mines: May, July.

Time of year - adults: There are at least two generations per year.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Widespread and common in Britain, including Lancaster (Formby) (Spencer, 1972: 25) and Warwickshire (Robbins, 1991: 124); Cambridgeshire, East Sussex, Glamorgan, North Somerset and South Wiltshire (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).

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: Widespread in continental Europe including Denmark, Finland, Norway (Spencer, 1976: 75), The Netherlands (Bladmineerders van Europa), Belgium (de Bruyn and von Tschirnhaus, 1991), Germany (Spencer, 1976: 75), Austria, Canary Is., Corsica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, European Turkey, French mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Spanish mainland, Switzerland and Yugoslavia (Martinez in Fauna Europaea).

Range extending east to Siberia (Spencer, 1976: 75).

Also recorded from Canada (Spencer, 1969a: 93; Spencer, 1976: 75).

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

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Unknown.