Leaf-mine: Upper side blotch mine beginning with a deeper, almost full depth corridor. Frass grains not in thread-like pieces, irregularly scattered. In the large, later blotch indistinct primary and secondary frass lines are found; the frass accumulated in the middle.

Each mine begins with one, rarely two, oval egg shells attached to the leaf underside. Sometimes a number of of young mines, and eggs, on one leaf. The first part of the mine is a tortuous corridor, quickly turning into a large blotch. Most of the blotch is full depth, only some patches are upper-surface, and greenish in transparency. According to the literature copious frass in present in dispersed lumps. In my experience the larva -that then looks very dark- may accumulate all frass in its body. The larva is capable of leaving its mine, and starting a new one elsewhere. These secondary mines can be recognised by the large hole that was made by the larva when entering. Pupation outside the mine (Bladmineerders van Europa).

A gallery then a blotch, larger and deeper than Amauromyza flavifrons. In large leaves the mine is upper surface and all in one piece. In small leaves the whole leaf may be covered by a full depth mine with the larva mining several leaves in British leafminers.

Larva: The larva is illustrated in Bladmineerders van Europa.

Puparium: Posterior spiracles of larva each with 3 bulbs.

Comments: Ackland in Chandler (1978) did not indicate whether his host records were British or Foreign and are therefore included under 'Hosts in Britain' and 'Hosts elsewhere'.

Lychnis coronaria is treated as Silene coronaria (Rose Campion) and Lychnis flos-cuculi is treated as Silene flos-cuculi (Ragged-Robin) by Stace (2010).

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - mines: June.

Time of year - adults: Unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Widespread. Warwickshire (Coventry) (Robbins, 1991: 34); Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Carmarthenshire, East Kent, East Ross, Easterness, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, North Hampshire, Oxfordshire, South Lancaster, Stafford, Surrey, Warwickshire and West Cornwall (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 (Hering, 1957) including The Netherlands (Bladmineerders van Europa), Belgium (Gosseries and Ackland, 1991), Andorra, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Lithuania, Malta, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - North and Northwest, Spanish mainland and Sweden (Michelsen, in Fauna Europaea).

Also recorded in Japan and Korea, North Africa and Nearctic Region (Michelsen, in Fauna Europaea).

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

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Unknown.